Among the many cats, lion, tiger and leopard are the three famous "kings of beasts".
is different from lion (the only cat without markings on its body) and tiger (with black markings on its body), which have only one species. The animals in the world named leopards include leopard, snow leopard, 5 species including jaguar, clouded leopard and cheetah (with all black spots on the body). People often confuse them. In fact, only the leopard is the real "leopard." The other species are close or distant relatives of the leopard, even farther than the relationship between the leopard, the lion and the tiger.
花豹一族
Leopards are also known as leopards or leopards. They are widely distributed, from the snowy forests of northern Asia to the tropical rain forests of the Nanyang Islands, from the roof of the world to Qinghai It exists from the plateau to the Sahara Desert. It has a body length of 100 to 150 cm, a tail length of about 80 cm, and a weight of about 50 kg. The whole body is covered with black spots, the spots on the head are small and dense, and the spots on the back are dense and large. The spots are round or oval plum-shaped patterns, which are similar to ancient copper coins in China, so they are called "Leopard". It is said that every leopard in the world has its own unique spot pattern, just like human fingerprints are different.
In taxonomy, Leopard belongs to the order Carnivora, Feline and Panthera. There are 5 species of animals in the genus Panthera. In addition to leopards, lions and tigers, there are jaguars and snow leopards.
The jaguar is the animal that looks most like a leopard, but the head looks larger and the tail is shorter, especially the tumor-like protrusions on the inside of the eye sockets are its main characteristics. The protuberance is not found in other panthers such as leopards, lions, and tigers. The ancestor of the jaguar is a large cat with slender limbs that lived in Asia during the early to mid-Pleistocene about 3 million to 10,000 years ago. It was later dispersed to North America by a land bridge in the Bering Sea, and then entered South America. But with the changes of the times, its body shape became smaller and its limbs became shorter, becoming the current Jaguar.
The jaguar is the largest cat on the American continent, with a body length of 112-185 cm, a tail length of 45-75 cm, and a weight of 65-130 kg. At first glance, the pattern on the leopard is very similar to the leopard, but the black circular ring is larger, and there are generally one or more black spots in the ring, which is the same as the small leopard with the hollow ring pattern in the ring. Significantly different, it is not difficult to tell when you look closely. The coat color of the jaguar is similar to that of the leopard, and the whole body is golden to orange, but like the leopard, you can occasionally see a few black (or even white) variants.
Snow leopards are also called grass leopards, earth leopards, horse leopards, sage leopards, lotus leaf leopards, etc. It is a specialty on the plateaus of central Asia, and is mainly distributed in Tibet, Sichuan, Xinjiang, and Qinghai. , Gansu, Ningxia, and western Inner Mongolia. The snow leopard is the most primitive species of the Panthera. It has many differences from the Leopard. Especially the skull is significantly different. The hyoid bone is basically ossified, unlike other Panthera animals whose middle part is ligamentous cartilage. Therefore, some taxonomists believe that it should be a single genus. Although its size and appearance are similar to those of leopards, the length, color, pattern, and tail shape of its body hair are different. The snow leopard has a body length of 100 to 150 cm, a tail length of 80 to 100 cm, and a weight of 35 to 50 kg. The snow leopard's body is gray-white, and the coat on the body surface is very thin, soft and dense. The toes and under the soles of the feet are also covered with dense long hair, which can prevent it from slipping when moving on ice and snow.
Clouded leopards are also known as black clouded leopards, tortoise shell leopards, tortoise leopards, camphor leopards, etc. They are distributed from southern Gansu and Shaanxi Qinling to the south to Nanyang Islands. The clouded leopard has a body length of 95 to 106 cm, a tail length of 73 to 91 cm, and a weight of 14 to 16 kg. Although the clouded leopard looks like a leopard, it has a smaller body, shorter limbs and a longer tail. In fact, the clouded leopard is more like a larger wild cat. It is more similar to cats in many aspects such as shape and habits. Therefore, some scholars classify it as a cat, but generally list it separately. It is a genus, the clouded leopard. The basic color of the clouded leopard body colorThe color is light brown-yellow or gray-yellow. There are several oblique rectangular cloud-shaped or turtle-shaped dark large patches on both sides of the body from the forelegs to the head, and there are some fuzzy black spots inside the patches.
The prominent feature of clouded leopard in morphology is its teeth, especially the canine teeth grown in the upper jaw, which are particularly thick near the tip of the lower jaw, which often reminds people of the extinct saber-toothed tiger. Although there are actually no large beasts such as lions, tigers, leopards, and other large beasts, the canine teeth are much larger in proportion to the body.
Cheetahs are distributed in most parts of Africa, western Asia and India. It is also relatively small, with a body length of 100 to 150 cm, a tail length of 60 to 80 cm, and a weight of 45 to 60 kg. The relationship between cheetahs and leopards is relatively far apart. The main differences in morphology from leopards are: the body is also light yellow with black spots on the fur, but the background color is much lighter than that of leopards. The black spots are solid. It is not ring-shaped; there is a very unique black vertical pattern from the corner of the eye to the corner of the mouth, and the leopard does not have such a vertical pattern; the body and limbs are thin and tall, thin and long, not as thick as the leopard; the tail is very long, mostly There are black spots, and a black ring is wrapped around the tip of the tail. In addition, some male animals have long hairs that are not too thick on their necks, and the distribution of spots on the bodies of individuals living in different regions is also different. Cheetahs also form a separate genus in taxonomy, the genus Acinonyx.
Hunter True Color
Although the leopard sits in the third place among cats, it is a bit wronged for them. Although the leopard's body is not as tall as the lion and tiger, it has beautiful lines, strong sex, agile movements, and unique skills that the two big brothers do not possess, so it is also a symbol of majesty and strength.
Leopards live in a variety of environments such as mountain forests, hilly shrubs, desert grasslands, etc. The habit is nocturnal: sleep in nests or bushes during the day, and the sun shines through the forest. It is covered with variegated fur, even if it is a few meters away, it is difficult to find its existence; it comes out in the evening to search for food, and does not rest until dawn. It has developed senses, agile movements, good at climbing trees, and can catch monkeys and birds on trees; it is also good at jumping, up to 6 meters high and 12 meters away in one jump; but it does not like swimming. The Leopard’s temperament is extremely ferocious, its canine teeth are large and sharp, and its cracked teeth are particularly developed, which is good for capturing and tearing prey.
Leopards have two main attacks when hunting. One is to hide in a tree and wait for the prey to pass by, so that the prey can be found from a high position, and the smell will drift with the wind; the other is sneak attack, sneak first Approaching the prey, then suddenly jumped out to capture it. At that time, the prey that could not be eaten was hung on the high branches. Its power was so great that it could catch a prey that was half heavier than itself into a tree.
Snow leopard is one of the cats with the highest habitat altitude. It sits on top of the ice peaks and snow ridges, far away from the crowds, and has the momentum of "stretching in the sky, walking alone". Especially climbing, jumping and catching prey on the cliffs are good at.
Compared with leopards and snow leopards, jaguar can be called "all-round athlete" among cats. It is good at swimming and can be called a semi-aquatic animal. When it moves in the water, it is more comfortable and unrestrained than any other big cats. He is also an expert in fishing, and his skills in catching fish, crocodiles, anacondas and turtles are as good as his hunting skills on land.
The clouded leopard inhabits the dense tropical and subtropical jungles. Its arboreal nature surpasses other cats. On the contrary, it is not as sensitive as other cats when moving on the ground. It is a skilled climber. It can use its thick and long tail to help its body balance on the branches. It can move on horizontal branches with its back down and belly up, or it can jump from dense and messy branches. , Is also good at swimming, often swimming on the water for food. It also often waits on the tree. When the prey approaches, it jumps directly from the tree to the top of the prey's head to hunt, unlike other cats that must jump to the ground first, and then hunt down.
Cheetah lives in the openThe wide sparse savannah and semi-desert zone is one of the five major animal hunters in the African wilderness (lion, cheetah, hyena, leopard, and African wild dog). It has developed pectoral muscles, slender and fully stretchable limbs, soft and flexible His spine, slender and fat-free figure provide the necessary conditions for its super running ability. Its claws are always stretched out, like the spikes under the soles of running shoes.
The cheetah is the fastest animal on land. It runs at a large pace. The hind legs are inserted between the front legs. The tail balances the whole body. First, arch the back and retract the abdomen to make the back Extend the claws as far forward as possible before landing, in order to extend the span of each step, and then retract the soffit so that the front claws extend as far forward as possible before landing, each step can reach 7 meters, the frequency is 3.5 steps per minute . In particular, its explosive power is extremely strong. It only takes 2 seconds to reach a speed of 70 kilometers per hour from a static state, and the fastest can reach a speed of 113 kilometers per hour.
The situation is worrying
Unfortunately, the beautiful leopards are currently facing an existential crisis. Among the three subspecies of Leopard distributed in China, the Northeast Asian species (also called Northeastern Leopard, Far East Leopard, and Silver Leopard) that inhabits northeast China and the Far East abroad is one of the rarest animal subspecies in the world. The number is estimated to be only 20-40; the North China subspecies (also called North China leopard), inhabits northwest, and some areas of Central and East China, is a special subspecies of China, but due to large numbers of hunting (only in Shanxi in the 20th century 1750 animals were killed in the 1960s). They have become extinct or endangered in Gansu, Henan, Hebei and other places; although the South China subspecies (also called South China Leopard) has a wide distribution in China, including most areas south of the Yellow River , But the number is not large. Due to the severe fragmentation of habitats, the populations in many places are only a few, and it is easy to extinct due to the loss of good genes due to close relatives. The situation of leopards abroad is not optimistic. For example, there are only about 1,000 Persian subspecies (also called Persian leopards) in Iran.
The situation of other leopards is as worrying as the leopards. There are currently about 3,500 snow leopards in the world, of which there are about 2,000 in our country. The sharp decline in the number of jaguars was in the 1960s and 1970s, when as many as 18,000 jaguars were killed each year. The clouded leopard is on the verge of extinction in my country's Hainan, Shaanxi, Henan and other places, and another subspecies of the clouded leopard, the Asian clouded leopard, has become extinct. There were thousands of clouded leopards before 1940. Due to the rapid development of modern industrial society, a large number of forests were cut down, which made them lose their homes. Coupled with a large number of hunting and other reasons, the number of Asian clouded leopards is decreasing.
In 1972, the last Asian clouded leopard fell under the guns of criminals. From then on, people can only enjoy the beautiful and vigorous Taiwan clouded leopard in the pictures. The Asian cheetah has the same fate as the Asian clouded leopard. It is a subspecies of cheetah, distributed in western and southern Asia. After 1948, people have never seen an Asian cheetah with slender body, graceful posture and flexible movements in the wild. The last Asian cheetah was a caged individual living in the Delhi Zoo in India. It died in January 1995, bringing an end to the life history of the Asian cheetah.
In the "Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora", Leopards, Snow Leopards, Clouded Leopards and Cheetahs are all listed in Appendix I, and Jaguar is listed in Appendix II. In my country's Red Book of Endangered Species, Leopards, Snow Leopards, and Clouded Leopards are all listed as endangered species; in my country's National Key Protected Wildlife List, Leopards and Snow Leopards are listed as Class I protected animals, and Clouded Leopards are listed as Class II protected animals.
In people's traditional concept, leopards often harm livestock and even cannibalize people. They are out-and-out pests. In fact, leopards generally do not take the initiative to attack people. When they encounter people, they mostly confront them. After 5 to 7 minutes, as long as the people do not move, run or shout loudly, the leopard will automatically avoid and walk in. In the dense forest. Only when there are too many leopards and food is scarce, do they come near the village and harm the livestock. When the number of leopards decreases sharply, the number of animals such as wild boars that cause greater harm to agriculture will increase. Therefore, leopards are one of the important factors for maintaining ecological balance in nature.It has a great effect on eliminating sick individual herbivores, especially those zoonotic diseases that threaten human health.
There is another important reason why people hunt leopards, that is because the leopard skin is bright in color, unique in pattern, beautiful and elegant. Today, the leopard pattern is still a timeless classic and fashion.
People continue to carry out crazy large-scale poaching activities in order to get its beautiful fur. Now, although the international fur market has banned the buying and selling of leopard skins, poachers still use it to make huge profits. In addition, leopard bones can also be used instead of tiger bones to be made into medicinal wine and sold.
Due to the impact of modern civilization, human beings continue to develop forests, reclaim farmland, overgrazing, quarrying, building roads, etc., causing large-scale destruction of the natural ecological environment, resulting in the fragmentation of the leopard’s habitat and its area The continuous shrinking and the sharp decrease in the number of other wild animals have also made them extremely poor in prey and have to prey on the livestock of farmers and herdsmen. As a result, farmers, herders and leopards became enemies, and scenes of tragedies continued to unfold.
Various leopards are the most representative "flagship" species in the various ecological environments they inhabit. Whether they can be successfully protected will affect the entire ecosystem Balance. For this reason, protection action plans for various leopards are currently being implemented at home and abroad, and people are also calling for more care for them, and it is hoped that the implementation of these actions will not only enable the leopards to be well protected, but also And it can protect the entire ecosystem and gradually realize the harmonious development of man and nature.
