Panthera pardus

PROTECTED STATUS: CITES - Appendix I and U. S. ESA - Endangered.

Sumber: Order Carnivora

DISTRIBUTION: N. Africa; S. W. Asia, north Caucasus and Kopet Dag, throughout Oriental region to Java, north to Korea and Amur region; Subsaharan Africa.

Sumber: Order Carnivora

Habitat. As might be predicted from its broad geographic distribution, Leopards are able to live in almost every type of habitat. In sub-Saharan Africa the cats are found in all habitats that have an annual rainfall above 50 mm. They are also found in true deserts, but only where river courses extend into this otherwise inhospitable habitat. In the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, South Africa, Leopards inhabit arid, open-dune sandveld with scattered shrubs and trees. They escape the intense midday heat by sheltering in porcupine or aardvark burrows. Tracking studies in the Kalahari have shown that Leopards can survive without drinking for as long as ten days. In other hot, dry deserts such as the Namib, Sahara, Sinai, and Arabian, Leopards also use caves, burrows, or the shade of dense vegetation to survive daytime temperatures that may reach 70 ° C. In other parts of Africa Leopards occur in the wetter habitats, including savannas, acacia grasslands, evergreen and deciduous forests, and scrub woodlands. They also occur in the rain forest habitats of Central and West Africa, where annual rainfall typically exceeds 1500 mm. Leopards are common throughout the Indian subcontinent, from the moist deciduous, teak, and shola forests of the Western Ghats to the dry, deciduous, bamboo, and mixed forests of the rugged tableland in central India. In the north they live in sal forest and the tall grasslands on the outwash plains of the Himalaya as well as in the mountainous terrain of Pakistan and Kashmir to 5200 m. In Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, and Java the cats are found in dense, primary rain forest and a variety of other forest types. In the Russian Far East Leopards inhabit mountainous forested regions. They prefer broken topography with Korean pine and second growth oak forest. In this area, a key limiting factor is snow depth. The cats prefer habitats where the average long-term snow cover does not exceed 15 cm. Whatever type of habitat they live in, Leopards are often able to persist in close proximity to people, as long as they are not persecuted and have access to secure den sites. Remarkably, three Leopards were discovered living in an abandoned engine at the railroad station in Kampala, Uganda. In India it is not uncommon to read newspaper accounts ofvillagers finding leopards hiding in sheds and outbuildings.

Sumber: Felidae