The African leopard exhibits great variation in coat color, depending on location and habitat. Coat colour varies from pale yellow to deep gold or tawny, and sometimes black, and is patterned with black rosettes while the head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black. Male leopards are larger, averaging with being the maximum weight attained by a male. Females weigh about on average. The African leopard is sexually dimorphic; males are larger and heavier than females. Between 1996 and 2000, 11 adult leopards were radio-collared on Namibian farmlands. Males weighed only, and females . The heaviest known leopard weighed about , and was recorded in South West Africa.
Characteristics
African leopard
African leopard | Characteristics
They are pale yellow to deep gold, and is patterned with black rosettes while the head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black. Coat colour varies from pale yellow to deep gold or tawny, and sometimes black, and is patterned with black rosettes while the head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black. Coat colour varies from pale yellow to deep gold or tawny, and sometimes black, and is patterned with black rosettes while the head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black. Coat colour varies from pale yellow to deep gold or tawny, and sometimes black, and is patterned with black rosettes while the head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black
what is massospondylus?
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Genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur
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who discovered this species?
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Joseph Millard Orpen
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where was it found?
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Upper Elliot Formation at Harrismith, South Africa
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what other historic species have been discovered in the country mentioned above?
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Hominid species; Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus sediba, etc.
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what are the different wars that have happened in this country?
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Boer Wars
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when did the first of these wars happen?
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16 December 1880 - 23 March 1881
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which events caused the outbreak of it?
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Violation of the Sand River Convention of 1852, and the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854, by the British.
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what are some animals found in the country mentioned previously?
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Lions, African leopards, South African cheetahs, etc.
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in which region is the second animal found?
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Most of sub-Saharan Africa
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what does it look like?
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According to Alfred Edward Pease, black leopards in North Africa were similar in size to lions. An Algerian leopard killed in 1913 was reported to have measured approximately , before being skinned.
African leopard | Characteristics
The African leopard exhibits great variation in coat color, depending on location and habitat. Coat colour varies from pale yellow to deep gold or tawny, and sometimes black, and is patterned with black rosettes while the head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black. Male leopards are larger, averaging with being the maximum weight attained by a male. Females weigh about on average. The African leopard is sexually dimorphic; males are larger and heavier than females. Between 1996 and 2000, 11 adult leopards were radio-collared on Namibian farmlands. Males weighed only, and females . The heaviest known leopard weighed about , and was recorded in South West Africa.
African leopard | Characteristics
The leopard's fur is generally soft and thick, notably softer on the belly than on the back. Its skin colour varies between individuals from pale yellowish to dark golden with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its belly is whitish and its ringed tail is shorter than its body. Its pupils are round. Leopards living in arid regions are pale cream, yellowish to ochraceous and rufous in colour; those living in forests and mountains are much darker and deep golden. Spots fade toward the white underbelly and the insides and lower parts of the legs. Rosettes are circular in East African leopard populations, and tend to be squarish in Southern African and larger in Asian leopard populations.
Leopard | Characteristics
Males measure from with an long tail, a shoulder height of , and a weight of . Females weigh from . The North Chinese leopard was first described on the basis of a single tanned skin which was fulvous above, and pale beneath, with large, roundish, oblong black spots on the back and limbs, and small black spots on the head. The spots on the back, shoulders and sides formed a ring around a central fulvous spot. The black spots on the nape were elongated, and large ones on the chest formed a necklace. The tail was spotted and had four black rings at the tip.
Amur leopard | Characteristics
In 1856, the Anatolian leopard was described as having a grayish, slightly reddish fur with large rosettes on the flanks and back, smaller ones on the shoulder and upper legs, and spots on the head and neck. It is similar in size to the African leopard.
Anatolian leopard | Characteristics
Leopard subspecies: Arabian leopard Anatolian leopard Persian leopard Indian leopard Amur leopard Indochinese leopard Javan leopard Sri Lankan leopard
African leopard | See also
The fur tends to be grayish in colder climates, and dark golden in rain forest habitats. The pattern of the rosettes is unique in each individual. Its fur tends to grow longer in colder climates. The guard hairs protecting the basal hairs are short, in face and head, and increase in length toward the flanks and the belly to about . Juveniles have woolly fur, and appear to be dark-coloured due to the densely arranged spots. Its white-tipped tail is about long, white underneath and with spots that form incomplete bands toward the tail's end. The leopard's rosettes differ from those of the jaguar, which are darker and with smaller spots inside.
Leopard | Characteristics
The African leopards inhabited a wide range of habitats within Africa, from mountainous forests to grasslands and savannahs, excluding only extremely sandy desert. It is most at risk in areas of semi-desert, where scarce resources often result in conflict with nomadic farmers and their livestock. It used to occur in most of sub-Saharan Africa, occupying both rainforest and arid desert habitats. It lived in all habitats with annual rainfall above , and can penetrate areas with less than this amount of rainfall along river courses. It ranges up to , has been sighted on high slopes of the Ruwenzori and Virunga volcanoes, and observed when drinking thermal water in the Virunga National Park.
African leopard | Distribution and habitat
The African leopard ("Panthera pardus pardus") is the nominate subspecies of the leopard, native to many countries in Africa. It is widely distributed in most of sub-Saharan Africa, but the historical range has been fragmented in the course of habitat conversion. Leopards have been recorded in North Africa as well.
African leopard | Introduction
The African civet has a coarse and wiry fur that varies in colour from white to creamy yellow to reddish on the back. The stripes, spots, and blotches are deep brown to black. Horizontal lines are prominent on the hind limbs, spots are normally present on its midsection and fade into vertical stripes above the forelimbs. Its muzzle is pointed, ears small and rounded. A black band stretches across its small eyes, and two black bands are around its short broad neck. Following the spine of the animal extending from the neck to the base of the tail is the erectile dorsal crest.
African civet | Characteristics
The Indian leopard has strong legs and a long well-formed tail, broad muzzle, short ears and small, yellowish grey eyes, light grey ocular bulbs. Its coat is spotted and rosetted on a pale yellow to yellowish-brown or golden background, except for the melanistic forms; the spots fade toward the white underbelly and the insides and lower parts of the legs. Rosettes are most prominent on the back, flanks and hindquarters. The pattern of the rosettes is unique to each individual. Juveniles have woolly fur, and appear dark due to the densely arranged spots. The white-tipped tail is long, white underneath, and displays rosettes, which form incomplete bands toward the end.
Indian leopard | Characteristics
Leopard subspecies: African leopard Amur leopard Arabian leopard Anatolian leopard Indian leopard Indochinese leopard Javan leopard Persian leopard Sri Lankan leopard "Panthera pardus spelaea"
Zanzibar leopard | See also
The clouded leopard's fur is of a dark grey or ochreous ground-color, often largely obliterated by black and dark dusky-grey blotched pattern. There are black spots on the head, and the ears are black. Partly fused or broken-up stripes run from the corner of the eyes over the cheek, from the corner of the mouth to the neck, and along the nape to the shoulders. Elongated blotches continue down the spine and form a single median stripe on the loins. Two large blotches of dark dusky-grey hair on the side of the shoulders are each emphasized posteriorly by a dark stripe, which passes on to the foreleg and breaks up into irregular spots.
Clouded leopard | Characteristics
Its back is nearly straight. Its tusks are straight and point downwards.
African forest elephant | Characteristics
In some cases, fixation indices showed higher diversity than for Arabian and Persian leopards in Asia.
African leopard | Taxonomy
The calf's cheek, ears (long with pointed lobes) and legs (longer and slimmer) were of the African type, while nail numbers (5 front, 4 hind) and the single trunk finger were Asian. The wrinkled trunk was like an African elephant. The forehead was sloping with one dome and two smaller domes behind it. The body was African in type, but had an Asian-type centre hump and an African-type rear hump.
Motty | Appearance
It appears to be successful at adapting to altered natural habitat and settled environments in the absence of intense persecution. It has often been recorded close to major cities. But already in the 1980s, it has become rare throughout much of West Africa. Now, it remains patchily distributed within historical limits. During surveys in 2013, it was recorded in Gbarpolu County and Bong County in Upper Guinean forests of Liberia.
African leopard | Distribution and habitat
Excepting the crown, the spots on the head, and especially on the neck, are small, and more or less indistinct. The fore paws, rump and basal three-fourths of the tail are much like those of a lioness in form, but the end of the tail, although less ample, is marked like a show leopard's. The black angle of the mouth is similar to that of a leopard; the nose is dull-pink and eyes pale ochreous, like most leopards; but the general squareness of the head and rather large ears are more lion like. At times, when the animal is standing slackly, she is hollow backed, but usually the back is as shown in the drawing.
Congolese spotted lion | The story
The Arabian leopard's fur varies from pale yellow to deep golden, tawny or gray and is patterned with rosettes. Males have a head to body length of and weigh about ; females are long and weigh around . The Arabian leopard is smaller than both African and Persian leopards. It is however the largest cat in the Arabian Peninsula.
Arabian leopard | Characteristics
Pale reddish white: the upper part of the head from the nose to the nape, two very broad bands across the trunk, and three or four rings round the tail deep brown or black, the brown portions being edged with black, and broader than the ground-colour. Limbs reddish olive, with black dots on the elbows and knees. There are ten upper and lower labials; two chin-shields larger than the first lower labial. The scales of the middle of the belly form thirty longitudinal series; seventeen pores in an angular series in the pre-anal region. This species attains a length of from .
East Indian leopard gecko | Description
Its body length is with a long tail; and weight range .
Southern African wildcat | Characteristics
Skins of male wildcats from Northern Africa measure in head-to-body length with a long tail. Skins of female wildcats measure with a long tail. Male wildcats from Yemen measure in head-to-body length with a long tail; females were slightly smaller measuring in head-to-body length with a long tail. Both females and males range in weight from .
African wildcat | Characteristics
The markings on the upper surface differ greatly in size and character; on the hind limbs they are large; toward the forequarters and head they diminish in size, but increase greatly in number, and the face is so to speak, strippled with black, except on the nose. There is a black mark on each side of the lower jaw, and a black stripe on the posterior side of each ear; and along the spine, from the root of the tail to about the centre of the back is a row of dark markings, somewhat like disconnected links of a chain.
Congolese spotted lion | The story
It may be well to note in further detail the colouring and markings of the beast. The ground colour is a pale tawny-buff, blending into creamy-white on the undersurface of the body; chin, throat, chest, inside of legs and undersurface of end of tail whitel; the whole surface of the body and legs is spotted similar or a leopard and snow leopard, the head and neck being less plainly marked; all the markings on the upper parts are pale, dusky, developing into black below, and deep black on both surfaces of the legs. An important feature is the pattern of the larger rosette markings, which are similar to those of the snow leopard, being composed of smaller spots, but forming larger rosettes than is usual in the ordinary leopard.
Congolese spotted lion | The story
The Javan leopard was initially described as being black with dark black spots and silver-grey eyes. Javan leopards have either a normal spotted coat, or a recessive phenotype resulting in an all-black coat.
Javan leopard | Characteristics
The leopard is sexually dimorphic, males are larger and heavier than females. It is muscular, with relatively short limbs and a broad head. Males stand at the shoulder, while females are tall. The head-and-body length ranges between with a tail. Sizes vary geographically. Males weigh , and females . Usually, leopards are larger in areas where they are at the top of the food chain, without competitive restriction from larger predators such as lions and tigers. Some leopards in North Africa allegedly were as large as Barbary lions. In 1913, an Algerian newspaper reported a leopard killed that allegedly measured about in total length.
Leopard | Size and weight
The fur of the African wildcat is light sandy grey, and sometimes with a pale yellow or reddish hue, but almost whitish on the belly and on the throat. The ears have small tufts, are reddish to grey, with long light yellow hairs around the pinna. The stripes around the face are dark ochre to black: two run horizontally on the cheek from the outer corner of the eye to the jaw, a smaller one from the inner corner of the eye to the rhinarium, and four to six across the throat. Two dark rings encircle the forelegs, and hind legs are striped.
African wildcat | Characteristics
The Northwest African cheetah is quite different in appearance from the other African cheetahs. Its coat is shorter and nearly white in color, with spots that fade from black over the spine to light brown on the legs. The face has few or even no spots, and the tear stripes (dark stripes running from the medial canthus of each eye down the side of the muzzle to the corner of the mouth) are often missing. The body shape is basically the same as that of the sub-Saharan cheetah, except that it is somewhat smaller.
Northwest African cheetah | Characteristics
Territorial sizes vary geographically and depending on habitat and availability of prey. In the Serengeti, they are as small as for males and for females, and as large as for males and for females in northeastern Namibia. They are even larger in arid and montane areas. Territories recorded in Nepal's Bardia National Park, for males and for females, are smaller than those generally observed in Africa.
Leopard | Social spacing
A leopard cat is about the size of a domestic cat, but more slender, with longer legs and well-defined webs between its toes. Its small head is marked with two prominent dark stripes and a short and narrow white muzzle. There are two dark stripes running from the eyes to the ears and smaller white streaks running from the eyes to the nose. The backs of its moderately long and rounded ears are black with central white spots. Body and limbs are marked with black spots of varying size and colour, and along its back are two to four rows of elongated spots.
Leopard cat | Characteristics
As in modern leopards, there was a strong sexual dimorphism, with males being larger than females.
Panthera pardus spelaea | Description
In 1978 in Sierra Leone, Wanless found adult females 4.8 to 9.6 millimetres in body length and adult males 5.2 to 7.2 millimetres. Both sexes have orange-brown carapaces with light orange round the eyes. The female's carapace has faint sooty markings, and short fine white and light brownish hairs lying over the surface, with a scanty tuft behind the fovea. Males have sparse white tufts on their thorax and irregular white bands above the bases of all but the first pair of legs. Female's chelicerae are orange with blackish markings, decorated with dense white hairs at the top and long light brown hairs near the bottom; while male's chelicerae are orange-brown, with darker markings and a layer of thin fine light brown hair.
Portia africana | Body structure and appearance
Leopard subspecies: African leopard Amur leopard Anatolian leopard Indian leopard Indochinese leopard Javan leopard Persian leopard Sri Lankan leopard
Arabian leopard | See also
Melanistic cheetahs are rare and have been seen in Zambia and Zimbabwe. In 1877–1878, Sclater described two partially albino specimens from South Africa. The head is small and more rounded compared to the big cats. Saharan cheetahs have canine-like slim faces. The ears are small, short and rounded; they are tawny at the base and on the edges and marked with black patches on the back. The eyes are set high and have round pupils. The whiskers, shorter and fewer than those of other felids, are fine and inconspicuous. The pronounced tear streaks (or malar stripes), unique to the cheetah, originate from the corners of the eyes and run down the nose to the mouth.
Cheetah | Characteristics
Occasionally, they successfully hunted warthog, dik-dik, reedbuck, duiker, steenbok, wildebeest and topi calves, jackal, Cape hare, guineafowl and starling. They were less successful in hunting zebras, Coke's hartebeests, giraffes, mongooses, genets, hyraxes and small birds. Scavenging from the carcasses of large animals made up a small proportion of their food. In tropical rainforest in Central Africa, their diet consists of duikers and primates. Some individual leopards have shown a strong preference for pangolins and porcupines. In North Africa, the leopard preys on Barbary macaques. In Gabon's Lope National Park, the most important prey species was found to be red river hog ("Potamochoerus porcus").
African leopard | Diet and hunting
South of the Isthmus, only melanistic leopards were recorded. Melanism is quite common in dense tropical forest habitat, and black leopards are thought to have a selective advantage for ambush.
Indochinese leopard | Characteristics
The Persian leopard varies in colouration; both pale and dark individuals occur in Iran. Its medium body length is , including a long skull and with a long tail. It weighs up to . Biometric data collected from 25 female and male individuals in various provinces of Iran indicates average body length of . A young male from northern Iran weighed .
Persian leopard | Characteristics
"Felis pardus" was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of "Systema Naturae" in 1758. His description was based on descriptions by earlier naturalists such as Conrad Gessner. He assumed that the leopard occurred in India. In the 18th and 19th centuries, several naturalists described various leopard skins and skulls from Africa, including: Results of genetic analyses indicate that all African leopard populations are generally closely related and represent only one subspecies, namely "P. p. pardus". However, results of an analysis of molecular variance and pairwise fixation index of African leopard museum specimens shows differences in the ND-5 locus spanning five major haplogroups, namely in Central–Southern Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, coastal West–Central Africa, and Central–East Africa.
African leopard | Taxonomy
The sides of the head are strikingly marked with black and white, giving the impression of vertical black and white bars on the lips. The second colour morph, from the west African savanna, is banded black and yellow, with a black tail, the head is brownish-yellow on top, the lips, chin and throat are yellow. The third colour morph, from the coastal plain of east Africa, south to KwaZulu-Natal, inland to Zambia and southern Democratic Republic of Congo, is brownish or blackish-brown above, paler below, the belly is yellow or cream, heavily speckled with brown or black, and specimens from the southern part of its range have black tails.
Forest cobra | Scalation
Individuals of both colors can be born in the same litter. Blackish brown individuals superficially resemble the tayra ("Eira barbara"), but the latter can be told apart by the clear, yellowish patch on the throat. The red morph is seen more often in dry, open areas. Melanistic individuals have been reported, but the coat is not completely black; the head and the throat are clearly paler than the rest of the body. The ears, long, are widely spaced and, unlike many other felids, lack white spots on the back. The jaguarundi has a total of 30 teeth; the dental formula is .
Jaguarundi | Physical characteristics
The body of the Southern African wildcat is marked with vertical stripes but these can vary from faint to quite distinct. The tail is ringed with black and has a black tip. The chin and throat are white and the chest is usually paler than the rest of the body. The feet are jet black underneath. There are two colour phases; iron-grey, with black and whitish speckling, and tawny-grey, with less black and more buffy speckling. In appearance it is very similar to a domestic cat, although the legs are proportionately longer. The most distinguishable characteristic is the rich reddish-brown colour on the backs of the ears, over the belly and on the back legs.
Southern African wildcat | Characteristics
Leopard subspecies: African leopard Arabian leopard Anatolian leopard Persian leopard Indian leopard Indochinese leopard Javan leopard Sri Lankan leopard "Panthera pardus spelaea"
Amur leopard | See also
Scorers: For South African Students: Tries: Spies, Matsaung, Olivier, Booysen Cons: Gallinetti 2 Pens: Gallinetti 2 For the African Leopards: Tries: Lloyd, Duvenhage Con: Sargos Pen: Sargos
African Leopards | Results
The tail is about half the size of its head-body length and is spotted with a few indistinct rings near the black tip. The background colour of the spotted fur is tawny, with a white chest and belly. However, in their huge range, they vary so much in colouration and size of spots as well as in body size and weight that initially they were thought to be several different species. The fur colour is yellowish brown in the southern populations, but pale silver-grey in the northern ones. The black markings may be spotted, rosetted, or may even form dotted streaks, depending on subspecies.
Leopard cat | Characteristics
It is found in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, the Republic of South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana to Eritrea, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Somalia, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Botswana, and Tanzania.
Aparallactus lunulatus | Geographic range
Leopard subspecies: African leopard Arabian leopard Anatolian leopard Persian leopard Indochinese leopard Javan leopard Sri Lankan leopard Amur leopard "Panthera pardus spelaea" Chinese leopard Zanzibar leopard
Indian leopard | See also
A few lion specimens from West Africa obtained by museums were described as having shorter manes than lions from other African regions. In general, the West African lion is similar in general appearance and size as lions in other parts of Africa and Asia.
Panthera leo leo | Characteristics
This species is distinguished from all other members of the genus by gray coloration with chocolate brown reticulations and spots covering the body and fins, as well as additional external features such as rounded pelvic fins, first dorsal fin with distinct white margin, preopercular and oral lateral line canals sharing a common branch, and morphology of pelvic claspers in males bifid, the distal 1/3 divided, with pale colored fleshy, distal lobes.
Leopard chimaera | Morphology and biology
Leopard subspecies: African leopard Arabian leopard Anatolian leopard Indian leopard Indochinese leopard Javan leopard Sri Lankan leopard Amur leopard "Panthera pardus spelaea"
Persian leopard | See also
Over the last years, he has travelled the whole of Africa where the leopard habitat is good (pretty much everywhere from open savannahs, forests, jungles to mountainous areas, even deserts). He has therefore learned to adapt to new environments; enjoying the diversity in nature and people across the African continent.
Zakumi | Life
Leopard subspecies: African leopard Arabian leopard Anatolian leopard Persian leopard Indian leopard Javan leopard Sri Lankan leopard Amur leopard "Panthera pardus spelaea"
Indochinese leopard | See also
The backs of its moderately long and rounded ears are black with central white spots. Body and limbs are marked with black spots of varying size and color, and along its back are three rows of elongated spots that join into complete stripes in some subspecies. The tail is about half the size of its head-body length and is spotted with a few indistinct rings near the black tip. The background color of the spotted fur varies from light grey to ochre tawny, with a white chest and belly. There are two main variants in the coloration. The cats from Java, Bali and Palawan are a light grey, sometimes yellow-grey, with very small spots that may not be clearly defined.
Sunda leopard cat | Characteristics
It is found in the Republic of South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Aparallactus capensis | Geographic range
Like its relative to the south in East Africa, the Northeast African cheetah is fairly large. Physically, it most resembles the East African cheetah; it has a densely ochraceous spotted coat with relatively thick and coarse fur in comparison to its relatives from eastern and northwestern Africa. The belly of the Northeast African cheetah is distinctly white while its breast and throat can have some black spots similar to the eastern subspecies. However, it is the darkest in fur color. This cheetah has the most widespread and separated black dorsal spots, but smaller than that of the East African cheetah's.
Northeast African cheetah | Physical characteristics
Leopards often hide large kills in trees, a behavior for which great strength is required. There have been several observations of leopards hauling carcasses of young giraffes, estimated to weigh up to , i.e. 2–3 times the weight of the leopard, up to into trees. In Serengeti National Park, leopards were radio-collared for the first time in the early 1970s. Their hunting at night was difficult to watch; the best time for observing them was after dawn. Of their 64 daytime hunts, only three were successful. In this woodland area, they preyed mostly on impala, both adult and young, and caught some Thomson's gazelles in the dry season.
African leopard | Diet and hunting
Females are smaller than males. It is the largest viverrid in Africa. Its shoulder height averages . Both male and female have perineal and anal glands, which are bigger in males. The perineal glands are located between the scrotum and the penis in males, and between the anus and the vulva in females.
African civet | Characteristics
Reported from central Africa to the southern regions of the Sudan. Probably more widely distributed. Found on hippopotamus and elephant dung in the spring or during the rainy seasons.
Panaeolus africanus | Habitat and distribution
Melanistic leopards are also called black panthers. Melanism in leopards is inherited as a recessive trait relatively to the spotted form. Interbreeding in melanistic leopards produces a significantly smaller litter size than is produced by normal pairings. The black panther is common foremost in tropical and subtropical moist forests like the equatorial rainforest of the Malay Peninsula and the tropical rainforest on the slopes of some African mountains such as Mount Kenya. Between January 1996 and March 2009, leopards were photographed at 16 sites in the Malay Peninsula in a sampling effort of more than 1,000 camera trap nights. Of the 445 photographs of melanistic leopards, 410 were taken in study sites south of the Kra Isthmus, where the non-melanistic morph was never photographed.
Leopard | Variant colouration
The African leopard ("Panthera pardus pardus") is a large, carnivorous feline having either tawny fur with dark rosette-like markings or black fur. The leopard is considered the most difficult of the big five to hunt because of their nocturnal and secretive nature. They are wary of humans and will take flight in the face of danger. The leopard is solitary by nature, and is most active between sunset and sunrise, although it may hunt during the day in some areas. Leopards can be found in the savanna grasslands, brush land and forested areas in Africa. Of the big five, it is most difficult to acquire hunting as well as the licenses for.
Big five game | African leopard
Leopard subspecies: African leopard Arabian leopard Persian leopard Indian leopard Amur leopard Indochinese leopard Javan leopard Sri Lankan leopard "Panthera pardus spelaea"
Anatolian leopard | See also
African buffalo ("Syncerus caffer") and cane rat ("Thryonomys swinderianus"), comprised 13% each of the consumed biomass. In Taï National Park, leopards were found to prey foremost on primates during the day.
African leopard | Diet and hunting
It differs from its cogenerate species by having a robust and bufoniform body, an adult averaging a size of between ; its smooth dorsum; and its orange coloration along its vertebral column, varying to yellow along its body's flanks, which in turn become increasingly verrucose. The skin on its dorsum shows no dermal co-ossification. The smooth dorsum of this species is similar to that of "B. ferruginus", as opposed to the rugose dorsum of "B. olivaceus", for instance. The species is unique among all "Brachycephalus" species in the presence of tiny dark spots on the dorsal portion of its head, thorax, legs, and arms, while at the same time possessing larger dark spots on the sides of its body.
Brachycephalus leopardus | Description
The leopard has an exceptional ability to adapt to changes in prey availability, and has a very broad diet. It takes small prey where large ungulates are less common. The known prey of leopards ranges from dung beetles to adult elands, which can reach . In sub-Saharan Africa, at least 92 prey species have been documented in leopard scat, including rodents, birds, small and large antelopes, hyraxes, hares, and arthropods. Leopards generally focus their hunting activity on locally abundant medium-sized ungulates in the range, while opportunistically taking other prey. Average intervals between ungulate kills range from seven to 12–13 days.
African leopard | Diet and hunting
The white underside is very distinct, especially on the neck and breast, and it has less spotting on its belly. The spots on the face are more pronounced, and as a whole its spots seem more dense than those of most other subspecies. The tear marks are notably thicker at the corners of the mouth, and almost all of them have distinct brown mustache markings. Like the Asiatic cheetah, it is known to have fur behind its tail and have both white and black tips at the end of its tail. However, the cheetah may also have only a black tip at the end of its tail.
Southeast African cheetah | Physical characteristics
The black bands surrounding its eyes closely resemble those of the raccoon. Other distinguishing features are its disproportionately large hindquarters and its erectile dorsal crest. It is an omnivorous generalist, preying on small vertebrates, invertebrates, eggs, carrion, and vegetable matter. It is one of the few carnivores capable of eating toxic invertebrates such as termites and millipedes. It detects prey primarily by smell and sound rather than by sight. It is the sole member of its genus.
African civet | Introduction
Widely distributed across the arid and savanna regions of eastern and southern Africa, extending from South Sudan and Somalia, across East Africa to South Africa and Namibia. The species is generally absent from the humid forest regions of Central Africa. Over this range, the leopard tortoise occupies the most varied habitats of any African tortoise including grasslands, thorn-scrub, mesic brushland, and savannas. They can be found at altitudes ranging from sea level to .
Leopard tortoise | Distribution and habitat
East African cheetahs measure around in head-and-body length and weigh between . The males are usually larger than females. Measurements on wild cheetahs in Tanzania were taken, and they can measure up to between in length and weighs between . The largest have been recorded in Kenya. Depth of skull and length of mandible are significantly larger in males. It is the second-palest after the Northwest African cheetah. East African cheetahs have a white-yellowish coat to a tannish coat. Their fur are usually quite shorter and leaner, however some can have a thick coarse fur on the belly. It has many round black spots, some can be found on the chests and neck, except on its white underside.
East African cheetah | Physical characteristics
The cheetah has small round spots without any rosettes. Like most cat species, the leopard has a diploid chromosome number of 38. The chromosomes include four acrocentric, five metacentric, seven submetacentric and two telocentric pairs.
Leopard | Characteristics
The rosettes are larger in other leopard subspecies in Asia. Fur colour tends to be more pale and cream in arid habitats, more gray in colder climates, and of a darker golden hue in rainforest habitats. The clouded leopard can be told apart by its diffuse "clouds" of spots compared to the smaller and distinct rosettes of the leopard, longer legs and thinner tail.
Indian leopard | Characteristics
The South African giraffe has dark, somewhat rounded patches "with some fine projections" on a tawny background colour. The spots extend down the legs and get smaller. The median lump of males is less developed.
South African giraffe | Descriptions
Leopard subspecies: African leopard Arabian leopard Anatolian leopard Persian leopard Indian leopard Indochinese leopard Sri Lankan leopard Amur leopard "Panthera pardus spelaea"
Javan leopard | See also
Leopard subspecies: African leopard Arabian leopard Anatolian leopard Persian leopard Indian leopard Indochinese leopard Javan leopard Amur leopard
Sri Lankan leopard | See also
The fauna again shows the effect of the characteristics of the vegetation. The open savannas are the home of large ungulates, especially antelopes, the giraffe (peculiar to Africa), zebra, buffalo, wild donkey and four species of rhinoceros; and of carnivores, such as the lion, leopard, hyena, etc. The okapi (a genus restricted to Africa) is found only in the dense forests of the Congo basin. Bears are confined to the Atlas region, wolves and foxes to North Africa. The elephant (though its range has become restricted through the attacks of hunters) is found both in the savannas and forest regions, the latter being otherwise poor in large game, though the special habitat of the chimpanzee and gorilla.
Natural history of Africa | Fauna
The abdomen of both sexes is mottled yellow-brown and black, but the female's has tufts of orange-brown to dark brown hairs while the male's is mottled yellow-brown and black, clothed in white, orange-brown and black hairs, with conspicuous orange and cream white tufts. The legs of both sexes have many strong spines, and are yellow-brown to orange-brown with black stripes at the top part, and brown with darker brown and yellow-brown markings in the lower part.
Portia africana | Body structure and appearance
Saharan striped polecats are about 55–70 cm in length, including their tails, and generally weigh between .5 and .75 kg. It is striped white in a non-uniform fashion and has black feet, legs, ears, and underside. Often a white ring goes around the face and above a black snout. It is sometimes confused with the striped polecat though it is generally smaller and has distinct facial markings.
Saharan striped polecat | Physical characteristics
Herdsmen of the northern Sahel follow the rainfall patterns and the "C. africana" trees as they come into leaf, continually finding new areas for their animals to browse.
Commiphora africana | Introduction
Little variation in facial markings occurs, with the muzzle being black, gradually shading into brown on the cheeks and forehead. A black line extends up the forehead, turning blackish-brown on the back of the ears. A few specimens sport a brown teardrop-shaped mark below the eyes. The back of the head and neck are either brown or yellow. A white patch occasionally occurs behind the fore legs, with some specimens having completely white fore legs, chests and throats. The tail is usually white at the tip, black in the middle and brown at the base. Some specimens lack the white tip entirely, or may have black fur below the white tip.
African wild dog | Physical description
Savannas of subsaharan Africa from Nigeria east to Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, south through Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland, and eastern South Africa to Riverdale in the Western Cape Province. No type locality is listed.
Causus rhombeatus | Geographic range
The Central African oyan's body is slender and long, with an elongated head and a pointed muzzle. Its fur is yellowish to reddish brown with darker spots on the back and flanks. Its throat and belly are lighter in colour and without spots. Its tail has 9 to 14 dark rings. Its body is long, and the tail about the same length. Its legs are short, and the soles of its feet hairy. Females are slightly smaller than males.
Central African oyan | Characteristics
Male with 14 to 18 preanal pores. Tail swollen, rounded, tapering at the end, verticillated, above with small flat scales and rows of enlarged sub-corneal tubercles, beneath with larger flat scales arranged regularly. Above reddish brown and cream-coloured; the former colour occupies the head and forms two broad bands across the back, the anterior broadest, and three round the tail; the latter borders the upper lip and extends as a horseshoe-shaped band to the other side, passing across the neck; it also occupies the interspace between the dorsal and caudal brown bands, which are by far the widest; lower surfaces white.
East Indian leopard gecko | Description
The role of these streaks is not well understood—they may protect the eyes from the sun's glare (a helpful feature as the cheetah hunts mainly during the day), or they could be used to define facial expressions. The exceptionally long and muscular tail, with a bushy white tuft at the end, measures . While the first two-thirds of the tail are covered in spots, the final third is marked with four to six dark rings or stripes. The cheetah is superficially similar to the leopard, but the leopard has rosettes instead of spots and lacks tear streaks. Moreover, the cheetah is slightly taller than the leopard.
Cheetah | Characteristics
The Angolan genet has long light brown coloured fur with dark spots and a continuous dark crested line across the back. Its throat and chest are light grey to greyish black. It has small spots on the front and shoulders. The spots are more numerous and slightly bigger on the sides. In head-to-body length it ranges from . Its bushy long tail is ringed with a dark tip. Its legs are dark at the back. It has a dark grey face, a black muzzle and is white around the eyes and mouth. Its crest on the back is up to long.
Angolan genet | Characteristics
Pocock described an Indochinese leopard skin as almost rusty-red in ground colour but paler at the sides. It had small rosettes that were mostly in diameter and so closely set that it looked dark. The fur was short with less than long hair on the back. He commented to have seen only black leopards from Johor and other areas in the Malay Peninsula exhibited in menageries. He therefore assumed that the proportion of black leopards increases farther south. Records from camera trapping studies conducted at 22 locations in southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia between 1996 and 2009 show that Indochinese leopards recorded north of the Kra Isthmus are predominantly spotted.
Indochinese leopard | Characteristics
The adult is pale to bright yellow dorsally, with scattered black or blue spots. There is a continuous light vertebral stripe. There are dark or light reticulations (netlike patterns) on the head. The limbs are blotched and the tail has irregular dark markings. The juvenile typically has three yellow bars along the back. The male is about 15 centimeters long from snout to tail-tip. Females average about 14 centimeters.
Afghan leopard gecko | Appearance
"A. schlegelii" is found in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, southern Mozambique, northern Namibia, Somalia, South Africa, southern Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, northern Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Afrotyphlops schlegelii | Geographic range
In Central Africa, however, the main distinguishing characteristics include heart-shaped faces that are curved inward and display patterns of circles and dots.
Sculpture | Africa
In February 2019, Burrard-Lucas captured the first high-quality camera trap photographs of a melanistic African leopard, also known as a black panther, in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya. Previously, only one such leopard had been photographed in Africa, in 1909 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Will Burrard-Lucas | Melanistic African Leopard
The African forest elephant has a grey skin, which looks yellow to reddish after wallowing. It is sparsely covered with black coarse hair, which is long around the tip of the tail. The length of the tail varies between individuals from half the height of the rump to almost touching ground. It has five toenails on the fore foot and four on the hind foot. Its oval-shaped ears have small elliptical-shaped tips. Its large ears help to reduce body heat; flapping them creates air currents and exposes the ears' inner sides where large blood vessels increase heat loss during hot weather.
African forest elephant | Characteristics
Male Indian leopards grow to between and in body size with a to long tail and weigh between . Females are smaller, growing to between and in body size with a to long tail, and weigh between . Sexually dimorphic, males are larger and heavier than females. The largest wild individual appears to have been a male man-eater that was shot in the Dhadhol area of Bilaspur district, Himachal Pradesh in 2016. It reportedly measured from head to tail, at the shoulder, and weighed .
Indian leopard | Size
In Kruger National Park, most leopards tend to keep apart. Males interact with their partners and cubs at times, and exceptionally this can extend beyond to two generations. Aggressive encounters are rare, typically limited to defending territories from intruders. In a South African reserve, a male was wounded in a male–male territorial battle over a carcass. Males occupy territories that often overlap with a few smaller female territories, probably as a strategy to enhance access to females. In the Ivory Coast, the home range of a female was completely enclosed within a male's. Females live with their cubs in territories that overlap extensively, probably due to the association between mothers and their offspring.
Leopard | Social spacing
The Sunda clouded leopard has longer upper canines and a narrower palate between them.
Neofelis | Characteristics
"Brachycephalus leopardus" lacks the dermal co-ossification characteristic to species in the "ephippium" group, and its shape and larger size distinguish it from species in the "didactylus" group, which are on average smaller and have a leptodactyliform shape.
Brachycephalus leopardus | Description
This species was described from a specimen collected at Zavora, Mozambique, at depth of .
Halgerda leopardalis | Distribution
The first premolar is usually absent. The upper pair of canines measure or longer. The clouded leopard is often referred to as a "modern-day sabre-tooth" because it has the largest canines in proportion to its body size.
Clouded leopard | Characteristics
Occurs in a wide variety of habitats from wet forest and coastal bush to bushveld, mountain gorges and open country, typically savanna. Its range extends from the Western Cape, eastwards and northwards around the southern African coastline, extending inland in the warmer, wetter regions, and further north into Ethiopia.
Celtis africana | Range and habitat
It is found in southern Malawi, northern Mozambique, and extreme eastern Zimbabwe.
Afrotyphlops obtusus | Geographic range
The leopard catshark ("Poroderma pantherinum") is a species of catshark, and part of the family Scyliorhinidae, endemic to the coastal waters of South Africa. Abundant in inshore waters under deep, this bottom-dweller favors rocky reefs, kelp beds, and sandy flats. Growing to a length of , the leopard catshark has a stout body with two dorsal fins placed well back, and a short head and tail. It is extremely variable in color and pattern, with individuals ranging from almost white to black and covered by diverse patterns of black spots, blotches, rosettes, and/or lines. The color pattern changes with age and some forms seem to be location-specific, suggesting the presence of multiple distinct, local populations.
Leopard catshark | Introduction
The springhare resembles a small kangaroo (though unrelated) with well-developed hind legs, which allows it to leap over in a single bound. It gets its name from this ability. This animal grows to be around in length excluding its long tail, and weighs an average of . The tail adds to another in length. The colour of this mammal varies from a reddish-brown to a pale grey, with a black tip on the tail. The springhare lives only in south-eastern Africa, feeding on plant matter and even occasionally insects. They have four toes on their hind feet with claws that look like small hooves; these are wider than those found on the fore feet.
South African springhare | Characteristics
The three spotted lines along the back do not from complete stripes and are close together. Those from Sumatra, Borneo and Negros have a warm ochre toned background color and larger well-distinguished spots. The three longitudinal spot-lines are usually fused into stripes. Sunda leopard cats weigh , have head-body lengths of and tails about 40-50% of that length.
Sunda leopard cat | Characteristics
In Kruger National Park, male leopards and female leopards with cubs were more active at night than solitary females. The highest rates of daytime activity were recorded for leopards using thorn thickets during the wet season, when impala also used them. Leopards are generally most active between sunset and sunrise, and kill more prey at this time.
African leopard | Behavior and ecology