What affects us affects cats
The truth of the matter is that leopards “become extremely cautious around larger predators such as lions and tigers, and prefer to retreat to cover or the safe haven of a tree rather than face a direct encounter”. That, I believe, satisfactorily answers the question in the title. They don’t want to fight lions …
No, an individual leopard can’t change their spots once they are fully developed. But the background colour varies considerably across the cats huge distribution. And leopard markings are, in fact, dark spots to rosettes which vary in ‘size, shape, thickness of margins and whether the margins are broken into two, three, four or even …
What kind of domestic cat has leopard spots? The answer must be the Bengal cat as you can see from the montage below: You will not match a leopard’s spots exactly in a domestic cat. As you can see they vary between solid spots and irregular shaped rosettes, to use cat fancy language. The …
It is hoped that a Roman mosaic from the 4th-century of a leopard attacking an antelope, which was discovered in the grounds of Dewlish House in Dorset in 1974, will stay in the country. It is the sort of historical work of art which should not be allowed to go overseas and which should …
Yes, leopards live in China. If you look at an historical map of the distribution of the leopard you will see that they occupied almost the entirety of China (2002). In fact the leopard probably still has the greatest geographic distribution of any wild cat species. However, although the experts seem to have divided …
Yes, a leopard can mate with a jaguar. The hybrid cat thus created has four different names: jagulep, jagleop, lepjag and leguar. All pretty unimaginative names but descriptive nonetheless. As usual, I have to call upon my friend Sarah Hartwell and her website messybeast.com for the best information about leopard/jaguar hybrids. She is the …
Yes, leopards eat monkeys but it depends on where the leopard is living. They have an enormous distribution, the largest of all the wild cat species. In “some forested areas leopards take a surprisingly large number of monkeys”1. This should not surprise us because leopards catch prey opportunistically, killing vulnerable animals wherever they are …
People ask why there are no big cats in Australia but they could also ask a much wider question namely, “Why are there no native cats at all in Australia?” The answer must be found in the fact that the evolution of the island continent of Australia and the evolution of cats as a …
