Leopard (Panthera pardus): Facts, Spots, Habitat and Diet

What does a leopard look like?

A leopard’s coat ranges from pale cream or yellow in dry country to deep gold in forests. It is covered in rosettes: rings or broken circles of black spots around a center that is slightly darker than the background color. On the head, legs and belly the marks become small solid spots. No two leopards share the same pattern, so researchers identify individuals from camera-trap photos.

The belly and throat are white, and the long tail has spots that form broken bands toward the tip. The underside of the tail tip is white. Leopards have a broad head, small rounded ears with a white spot on the back, and round pupils. The legs are relatively short and very muscular, which gives the cat a low, powerful look.

Some leopards are almost entirely black. These melanistic animals, often called black panthers, still have rosettes, but they are hard to see against the dark fur except in bright light. Our article Is a black panther a leopard? explains how this coat works.

How big is a leopard?

Leopards vary a lot in size from region to region, and males are clearly larger than females. Leopards from the Cape region of South Africa are among the smallest, while some Indian and East African males are much heavier.

Among the big cats, the leopard is smaller than the tiger, lion and jaguar but heavier and more muscular than the cheetah of similar length. The cheetah vs leopard guide compares the two side by side.

Leopards are also athletes. They can sprint at around 58 km/h (36 mph), leap more than 6 m (20 ft) horizontally and jump about 3 m (10 ft) straight up. They climb very well and usually come down trees head first.

Where do leopards live?

The leopard has the largest natural range of any wild cat. It is found across most of sub-Saharan Africa, in small, scattered populations in North Africa, Arabia, Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus, and through India, Nepal and Sri Lanka to Southeast Asia, China, Java and the Russian Far East. It is absent from Sumatra and Borneo.

Few large predators use such a wide range of habitats. Leopards live in savanna, dry woodland, tropical rainforest, mountain forest, rocky hills, the edges of deserts such as the Kalahari and Namib, and temperate forests where winter temperatures fall to −25 °C (−13 °F). A camera trap in Nepal photographed one at 4,300 m (14,100 ft). Where they are not persecuted, leopards even live close to towns and farms, moving at night and resting hidden by day.

The range has shrunk badly. Studies suggest leopards now occupy only about a quarter to a third of their historical range, and they have almost vanished from West Africa and the Sahara. The Where do leopards live? guide covers the range region by region.

What do leopards eat?

Leopards are carnivores with one of the broadest diets of any big cat: more than 100 prey species have been recorded. They prefer medium-sized prey of about 10–40 kg (22–88 lb), such as impala, bushbuck and duikers in Africa and chital deer in India. Monkeys, baboons, langurs, wild pigs, hares, rodents, birds, reptiles, fish and even large beetles are also eaten, depending on what is available.

A leopard hunts mostly at night by stalking. It creeps forward low to the ground, using cover and its spotted camouflage, until it is often within about 5 m (16 ft) of its target, then pounces. Small animals are killed with a bite to the back of the neck; larger ones are held by the throat until they suffocate.

The leopard’s signature habit is carrying kills into trees. Its strong neck and jaw muscles let it haul carcasses heavier than itself several meters up into the branches, where lions and hyenas cannot easily reach them. More detail is in What do leopards eat?.

Leopard behavior and social life

Adult leopards are solitary and territorial. A male’s home range usually overlaps the smaller ranges of several females, and neighbors keep their distance by scent marking, scraping the ground and calling. Home ranges vary enormously with prey: in the Serengeti males use about 33–38 km² (13–15 sq mi), while in arid parts of Namibia a male’s range can exceed 450 km² (174 sq mi).

Most leopards are active from dusk to dawn and rest during the day in trees, among rocks or in thick bushes. In some rainforests and protected areas where they are not disturbed, they also hunt by day. A leopard may walk up to 25 km (16 mi) in a night.

The most typical call is the “sawing” roar, a series of deep, rough grunts that carries a long way. Leopards also growl, snarl, hiss and purr, and cubs call their mother with soft meows. The white spots on the back of the ears and the white tail tip may help mothers and cubs keep track of each other, although this has not been proven.

Reproduction and cubs

Leopards can breed at any time of year in the tropics; in the Russian Far East mating takes place mainly in winter. Females usually first breed at about two and a half to three years old. After a pregnancy of about 90–105 days, the mother gives birth to two to four cubs, sometimes one, in a cave, a hollow tree, a rocky crevice or dense thicket.

Cubs are born with their eyes closed and with grayish, woolly fur that makes their spots look blurred. Their eyes open after about a week. The mother moves them between hiding places to avoid predators and starts bringing them to kills when they are about two to three months old.

Young leopards stay with their mother for roughly 18–24 months before they become independent; brothers and sisters sometimes stay in contact for a while afterward. Cub mortality is high, with an estimated 41–50% dying in the first year, mostly to lions, hyenas and adult male leopards. Females usually give birth every 15–24 months.

How long do leopards live?

Wild leopards usually live about 10–12 years, and the oldest known wild individuals reached around 17. In zoos, where food and veterinary care are reliable, leopards often reach 20 years, and a few have lived to 23 or older.

Predators, competitors and threats

Healthy adult leopards have few natural enemies, but they share their habitat with larger or more numerous predators. In Africa, lions kill leopards and their cubs when they get the chance; in one South African reserve, lions caused about a fifth of recorded leopard deaths. Spotted hyenas steal kills, which is why leopards stash food in trees. In Asia, tigers and packs of dholes (Asian wild dogs) dominate leopards, which often keep to the forest edges where tigers are common.

The real threats come from people. Leopards are losing habitat to farms and settlements, and their wild prey is being hunted out, which pushes them toward livestock and leads to retaliatory killing. Poaching for skins, bones and claws continues in Africa and Asia, and the leopard is also hunted legally as a trophy in some African countries under quotas.

Conservation status

The IUCN Red List classifies the leopard as Vulnerable, with a decreasing population trend. It is listed on CITES Appendix I, which bans most international commercial trade, although some trade in trophies is allowed under quotas.

The status hides big regional differences. Leopards remain fairly common in parts of eastern and southern Africa and India, where surveys estimate more than 12,000 leopards in forested tiger landscapes alone. Other populations are tiny. The Amur leopard of Russia and China and the Arabian leopard are both listed as Critically Endangered, and the Javan leopard as Endangered. The Amur leopard population has recovered from only a few dozen animals to more than 100 thanks to strong protection.

Myths and facts

Myth: leopards and panthers are different animals. Fact: “panther” is an old name for the leopard, and the black panthers of Africa and Asia are simply dark leopards.

Myth: the leopard and the jaguar are the same cat. Fact: they look similar, but the jaguar lives only in the Americas, is stockier and has larger rosettes, usually with spots inside. The leopard vs jaguar comparison explains the differences.

Myth: leopards never live near people. Fact: leopards are remarkably good at living unseen near villages and even cities, such as around Mumbai in India and Nairobi in Kenya, which can lead to conflict over livestock and dogs.

Leopards and people

Leopards have been symbols of power and beauty for thousands of years, from the god Dionysus in Greek art to the royal emblems of the Benin Empire and the Ashanti people in West Africa. The animal appears on several national coats of arms, and Rudyard Kipling’s black panther Bagheera in The Jungle Book is a leopard.

Attacks on people are rare compared with the number of leopards living near humans, but they do happen, especially in parts of India where leopards live among dense human populations. Most leopards avoid people. Anyone living or traveling in leopard country should follow local guidance, keep children close at dusk and night, and never approach a leopard.