Back in 1758 a detailed description of leopards was published stating how many subspecies of leopards were in existence and in the years from then until 1956 naturalists have discovered 27 subspecies of leopards in total.
During the 1990s detailed analysis of leopards DNA was carried out and the results were determined in 1996. At this point there were thought to be a subspecies of leopards that were classed as true and valid. Since then a further subspecies has been discovered bringing the total to 9.
However since there has not been detailed sampling carried out on African leopards this figure could be incorrect and there could be many more.
Currently these are the nine subspecies of leopards that are known to exist along with the place that they inhabit.
- The African Leopard – this was discovered in 1758 and is known to inhabit the sub-Saharan areas of Africa.
- The Indian Leopard – the subspecies was first discovered in 1794 and it inhabits the subcontinent of India.
- The Javan Leopard – this leopard was discovered in 1809 and inhabits the Java area of Indonesia.
- The Arabian Leopard – as the name suggests this leopard lives in the Arabian peninsular and was first discovered in 1833.
- The Amur Leopard – this leopard type was first noted in 1857 and it known to inhabit three areas – north-east China, Russian far east and the Korean peninsular.
- The North Chinese Leopard – the subspecies was first discovered in 1862 and this leopard inhabits the northern areas of China.
- The Caucasian Leopard or the Persian Leopard – this species was first described in 1914 and later on in 1927. This leopard inhabits northern Iran and Central Asia.
- The Indochinese Leopard – this species was discovered in 1930 and inhabits the mainland areas of South East Asia.
- The Sri Lankan Leopard – this was the last leopard subspecies to be discovered in 1956 and as its name suggests it lives in Sri Lanka.