• Leopards rely on their stealth and the element of surprise. They run at a seemingly pedestrian pace of only 60 kilometres per hour.

By ENOS SINKONDE Jr –
THE leopard has the largest geographic range of all known cats and is the most solitary and secretive of Africa’s big cats. It is found throughout most of Africa south of the Sahara and in parts of North Africa. In Zambia the leopard is found in both South Luangwa and Kafue national parks.
Further , Its range includes parts of the Middle East and extends east into India, southeastern Asia, and parts of northern Asia. Surprisingly, in Indonesia leopards are found on Java but there are no records of them on the larger islands of Sumatra and Borneo, which aremore  closer to mainland Asia. Leopards also lived in Europe until the end of the last ice age around 11,000 years ago.
Leopards can cope with almost any imaginable living conditions and habitats. They thrive in places as diverse as savannas and grasslands, open woodlands and rain forests, as well as in Africa’s Kalahari Desert and the freezing Amur region of Russia. Leopards are so stealthy, bold, and versatile that they have survived in areas where other large carnivores have been exterminated. They are able to live within sight and sound of people more effectively than any other big cat.
A full grown male leopard weighs about 60 kilogrammes (kg) and stands between 65-70 centimetres (cm) at the shoulder. Females are about a third smaller, weighing approximately 40 kg and measuring between 45­-50 cm at the shoulder. Like jaguars, pumas, and tigers, leopards vary greatly in size according to where they live. In general, leopards living in open areas like those in Zambia   are larger than those living in forests.
Two hundred years ago, it was thought that leopards and panthers were different species of cats. However, by the 20th century, biologist had established that the leopard and the black panther were anatomically indistinguishable from one another apart from their skin coat were former being spotted while the latter is completely black. With this finding  the name panther was officially dropped and all members of the species are now correctly known as leopards. Confusingly, some people continue to refer to black leopards as “black panthers” as if they were a separate species.
The leopard’s coat and markings are similar to those of the jaguar, and both cats can be individually identified by their spot patterns and coat characteristics. The base color of the leopard’s coat varies from golden to pale tawny yellow. Black spots cover the legs, flanks and head, and rosettes, made up of circular groups of spots, cover the rest of the body. On the throat, a series of spots sometimes join to form a solid black necklace. From the chin to the tail, the underparts are white. Leopards living in forests are generally darker than those that live in arid open areas, this is for them to blend in their  respective habitats. The length and thickness of the leopard’s fur also vary with the region and climate it lives in. For instance, leopards in cold regions such as Siberia and northern Asia have long, thick fur.
All-black (melanistic) leopards are common in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia. Black leopards are rare in Africa, nonetheless they are occasionally seen in Ethiopia and in the highlands of Kenya. Both black and spotted leopards can be born in the same litter the black form is inherited as an autosomal recessive gene to the spotted form and only thrive if the environmental factors allow.
Leopards are classified in the big cat genus Panthera, in which most biologist also include lions, tigers, jaguars, and snow leopards. These big cats share many similarities in their appearances and behaviors. It is thought that they all evolved from a common ancestor about 3 million to 4 million years ago. This isBecause the split into separate species is relatively recent and the genetic differences are relatively small.
Physically, unlike other big cuts true leopards do not have any remarkable specializations. They do not have extra powerful canines like the jaguar or adaptations for great speed like the cheetah. They are perfectly “generalised” big cats, well suited for making the most of a wide range of different types of prey.
Like many of the smaller cats and unlike most of the other big cats, leopards are superb climbers, capable of scaling even the largest trees. The mark of a truly accomplished climber is the ability to descend a tree headfirst and the leopard is one of only a handful of cats that can do this. Despite the persistent folklore that they don’t like to get wet, leopards are also quite at home in the water, a trait found in jaguars and some populations of tigers. Leopards enjoy playing in the water and swim well.
Leopards are solitary. Other than a female and her young, or a mating pair, they seldom associate with one another. Adult male leopards typically occupy large areas that overlap the ranges of one or more females. Female ranges are usually smaller than those of males.
Individuals maintain their rights to these areas primarily by scent marking. Scent marks, in the form of urine or feces, are deposited along commonly used travel routes, especially at road junctions or trail intersections. For a nocturnal solitary animal like the leopard, scent has many advantages as a signaling device in that it is persistent and not diminished by darkness. Leopards also communicate with one another through visual markings; they scratch trees and make scrape marks in the dirt by raking with their hind feet. They also vocalise their well-known “sawing” call is said to sound like “a piece of wood being sawn across with short sharp double strokes.” The sawing call can carry for 2 to 3 kms. Leopards are usually nocturnal, but they may be more active during the day in places where there are no large competing predators such as lions or cheetahs. They are also more diurnal in areas where their prey is active during the day.
Primarily visual hunters, leopards find prey from vantage points like trees and rock piles or by lying in wait in places where animals come to feed or drink. They are masters of concealment, and use every available rock, bush, or depression in the ground to get as close as possible to their prey. The final charge is short, usually less than 10 m. After a strike with the forepaw, leopards kill larger prey with a bite to the throat and smaller animals with a bite on the back of the neck.
Leopards in Africa often take their kills into trees. But  those found in Dense vegetation may allow leopards in Asia to more easily hide their kills.
In general, leopards eat whatever they can catch, and in most places they live on medium-sized mammals. However, leopards kill a much wider range of prey than most other large cats the diet of Zambian leopards, for example, includes more than 90 documented species.
Medium-sized antelope, such as gazelles and reedbucks, and deer make up most of the leopard’s diet in the wild. Leopards also feed on smaller animals such as rodents, porcupines, rabbits, hares, pangolins, monkeys, baboons, and even birds. They have also been seen eating fish, reptiles and amphibians, as well as grass. In places where leopards live close to people, they often kill livestock such as goats, sheep, and pigs. Leopards also will prey on domestic dogs and wild members of the dog family jackals, foxes, African hunting dogs, and dholes. It is not known why leopards have an apparent taste for dogs.Female leopards are usually about two-and-a-half years old when they give birth to their first litter. Males are capable of mating at about 24 months but because older, stronger males do most of the breeding, young males probably have to wait until they are three or four years old before they have an opportunity to sire a litter.
Leopards breed at any time of the year. After a gestation period of 96 days, the female finds a secure birth den in a cave, thicket, or rock pile. The usual litter size is two but on rare occasions as many as six cubs may be born.
Baby leopards are born blind. Their short fur is faintly spotted and they weigh 430 to 1000 grammes. The first few days after the cubs are born the mother spends all her time at the den, resting, nursing, and looking after her young. However, she has to hunt, and to do so she must leave her cubs from time to time. This is the time when her choice of a safe den site becomes crucial because the defenseless cubs are very vulnerable to predators. Fifty percent of young leopards don’t survive to reach a year old. Radio-tracking studies have shown that female leopards have to travel long distances from the birth den to find food and often have to leave their cubs unattended for long periods of time.
Cubs begin to travel with their mother when they are about two or three months old. At this time they weigh 3 to 4 kg and are beginning to eat meat. They practice killing grasshoppers and lizards but usually do not begin to kill larger prey until their permanent canine teeth appear at about seven months of age. By 12 to 18 months, young leopards are independent of their mother, but the timing varies. Males usually become independent earlier and some mother-daughter relationships are extended because daughters often settle near or next door to their mother’s range. This form of philopatry (the tendency of an individual to return to, or stay in, its home area or another adopted locality) creates clusters of closely related female leopards. Somewhat similar clusters are found among female lions, who form groups of closely related members called prides. Female leopards living near one another may be as closely related as lionesses in a pride.
The leopard is in the odd position of being critically endangered in some parts of its range and considered a pest in other areas. In the 1970s, all leopards were listed as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and international trade in leopards was prohibited. However, since 1983 several African countries have been allowed to export a limited number of leopards shot by trophy hunters until recently when trading in leopard parts has been made illegal world over.
Leopards clearly have the ability to survive near humans. However, the greatest long-term threat to their continued survival is the expansion of livestock ranching. With ranching usually comes the elimination of wild prey and attempts to exterminate predators. When leopards kill domestic stock they are often shot. If the carcass of a stock animal brought down by a leopard is found, it may be laced with pesticides to poison the cat when it returns to feed on the kill.
Leopards are also shot because they occasionally kill people. Man-eating leopards are feared more than man-eating tigers because leopards actually break into houses to claim their victims whereas tigers kill people who are tending livestock or collecting forest products.
With changing environment caused by global warming,lack of habitat ,human animal conflict and illegal trade of leopard parts. These activities have led  to the reduction of  leopard wild  population making it second on the list of most endangered big cuts.