In the feline family, leopards, jaguars and cheetahs are three animals that are often confused by people, and it may be better for cheetahs to recognize, after all, it is quite different from the other two in appearance, and between jaguars and leopards, if the knowledge reserves are not enough, it is difficult to distinguish the two.
Although the three animals look alike and have a "leopard" in their names, you know what? There is only one category of leopards in the strict sense, that is, leopards, which are divided into 9 subspecies, and in Our country, they are usually called "golden leopards".
From left: leopards, jaguars, cheetahs
Classifying jaguars and cheetahs as leopards is a mistake that most people in the world make, but it should be pointed out that although they are very similar to each other, and in ordinary people, it is seriously easy to confuse three species into one species, or different subspecies of the same species, or they are known to be different species, but they are classified as "leopards", which is actually not true, especially cheetahs, which are far from "leopards", and it is understandable to think that jaguars are one of the five animals of the leopard genus.
Leopard
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > a brief history of modern cat evolution</h1>
Since the Cambrian species explosion, there have been 5 species extinctions, the super-large animals on the earth have withdrawn from the historical stage, and the extinction of large carnivores has given small and medium-sized predators such as tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves an unprecedented opportunity for development, they have grown rapidly and gradually dominated the world until the rise of prehistoric humans.
All modern cats can be traced back to the cat-shaped species in ancient carnivorous, and in the later evolutionary process, they gradually diverged into several branches, one of which was the ancient cheetah, which evolved into today's cheetah after a long evolutionary process.
The two branches of the ancient saber-toothed tiger and the pseudo-saber-toothed tiger became extinct around the Tertiary, and only the ancient cats survived.
Later, the ancient cats were divided into three branches, namely the well-known cat-phobic cats, true saber-toothed tigers and real cats, especially the cat-phobic cats and true saber-toothed tigers, which gave birth to the prehistoric beasts with super high visibility and fierce personalities on the earth.
However, in the subsequent development process, these two branches also became extinct during the Quaternary Ice Age, and only the true cats survived, and after several differentiations, they finally formed two major categories of cats and leopards, which are the prototypes of the cat subfamily and leopard subfamily that we are familiar with in the modern cat family.
A brief diagram of the evolution of modern cats
In fact, with the continuous development of scientific cognition, people's classification of cats has been improving and changing.
Earlier people according to some characteristics of the cheetah, such as its claws can not be freely retracted like other cats, the scientific name of the cheetah genus "Acinonyx" in Greek has the meaning of "immovable claws", so people classified the cheetah as a cheetah subfamily, independent of the cat subfamily and the leopard subfamily.
Later, when it entered the field of molecular science, from the genetic level to look at the cheetah again, it was found that it was closely related to the mountain lion and the slender-waisted cat, and the three together formed a lineage, so the cheetah subfamily was abolished, and the species of cheetah was also classified into the genus Cheetah of the cat subfamily.
cheetah
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > leopard genus and leopard species</h1>
In ordinary times, many people like to refer to the cat subfamily and the leopard subfamily as "cats" and "leopards", respectively, although it can be said in everyday expressions and not very rigorous literature, but it is wrong to put it on academics. The same enumeration is the genus Leopard, which many people also like to refer to as "leopards".
There are 5 species of animals in the genus, namely tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars and snow leopards, which have an ancestor 4.6 million years ago, of which tigers and lions are comparable in size and are the largest in modern cats, followed by jaguars and leopards, the snow leopard is the smallest, but the area where it lives is the highest altitude.
Leopards are five species of animals
Leopard species refers to the general term for the various subspecies of leopards, and the adaptability of leopards is a stronger class of cats, from China and India to the Middle East to Africa.
According to genetic differences and habitat, leopards around the world can be divided into nine subspecies: Far Eastern leopard, North China leopard, Persian leopard, Indochinese leopard, Indian leopard, Java leopard, Arabian leopard, Sri Lankan leopard, and African leopard.
Of the nine subspecies, the Persian leopard is considered the largest subspecies with an average weight of 60 kilograms, and according to a 2007 survey, the largest Persian leopard found was from northern Iran.
Persian leopard
Since the jaguar is a species in the genus Leopard, like the leopard, is it a species of leopard? In fact, the jaguar is not a leopard species, but a single species: the jaguar species.
Depending on how they are called from place to place, the jaguar can also be called the jaguar, and it is the third largest cat in existence, second only to the lion tiger.
Historically, the jaguar's range once reached the northern part of California, but now there are no jaguars in the United States, and its current range is limited to Central and South America.
In the biological category, the species is a relatively small level, in a broad sense, the leopard genus, and even the entire leopard subfamily, can be called "leopard", but strictly speaking, only all members of the leopard species can be called "leopard". They are all known as "big cats", and except for a few animals such as snow leopards and clouded leopards, most of them can make a very powerful roar.
Compared to the cat subfamily, the leopard subfamily has a larger body size and a longer skull, and of course the most typical feature is that all members of the leopard subfamily have a concave along the middle seam of the frontal bone close to the nasal slit of the frontal bone.
jaguar
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > how to distinguish between leopards, cheetahs, and jaguars</h1>
Leopards and cheetahs are old-world cats, and jaguars belong to the New World cats, for many ordinary people, these three animals may not be easy to distinguish, even some non-professional personnel of the official media, often confuse their names, in fact, as long as you master some simple skills, you can distinguish between leopards, cheetahs and jaguars.
Habitat differences
As mentioned earlier, the distribution range of leopards is very wide, extending from the Russian Far East to the southern tip of Africa, spanning two continental plates in Asia and Africa, of which Africa is the distribution focus of leopards, and the vast majority of leopards in the world live in sub-Saharan Africa.
From the perspective of habitat span, the leopard is the largest of these three animals, but although the leopard's habitat is very wide, but the living state is very unoptimistic, compared to the historical distribution, the habitat has been reduced by at least 60%, and as far as the current distribution is concerned, the habitat patchy distribution, fragmentation is serious, there is less connection between the population and the population, inbreeding is one of the biggest dilemmas faced by the leopard.
Leopard distribution map
Cheetahs have also been widely distributed historically, and can be seen in southwestern Asia and throughout the African continent, but since the 1970s, the cheetah's habitat has been drastically reduced, especially in Asia, and it is nearly extinct.
Today, the vast majority of cheetahs live in Africa, in terms of distribution density, all existing areas of Asia where cheetahs are in low density distribution areas, while medium and high density distribution areas are in eastern and southern Africa, of which Botswana, Namibia, Uganda and other cheetahs have a large number.
Cheetah distribution map
There are no cheetahs or leopards in the Americas, but there is a more ferocious animal living in the Americas, that is, the jaguar. Historically, the jaguar also ranged widely, from southern North America to most of South America.
But later, due to the influence of human life, the jaguar's habitat has also been reduced repeatedly, and now the jaguar in North America has become extinct, and there is a sporadic distribution in Central America, most jaguars live in the Amazon jungle of South America, that is, south of Mexico, north of Argentina and containing this ecological belt.
Jaguar distribution map
From the habitat point of view, the distribution of cheetahs and leopards has a large intersection, and there is no shortage of leopards biting cheetahs in reality, but jaguars and the two are unable to meet under natural conditions, they are separated from each other in the north and south, so it is good to judge that those who live in the Wild Americas must be jaguars, and those who live in Asia and Africa must be leopards or cheetahs. In addition, it is worth mentioning that there is no distribution of cheetahs in China, only leopards.
Differences in appearance
Leopards, cheetahs and jaguars confuse so many people mainly because they all have dark markings and yellow undertones, but if you look closely, you can still find many differences between them.
For example, the most obvious point is that the cheetah from the inner corner of the eye on both sides, there are two dark "tear marks" that extend to the corner of the mouth, which is a feature that leopards and jaguars do not have, so this alone, we can directly judge the cheetah from the other two.
Cheetah's "tear stains"
In addition, the markings on the cheetah are solid spots, and whether it is a leopard or a jaguar, most of the markings on the body are rosettes, so it is not difficult to distinguish between cheetahs, and it is difficult to distinguish between leopards and jaguars, especially when the difference in markings on their bodies is not so obvious.
The jaguar's markings are the most special, in the form of rose knots, and some of them will have solid black spots, while the leopard's dark markings, although also rose knots, do not have solid spots in these markings.
Comparison of three big cats
Secondly, in terms of posture, jaguars are the largest, with males weighing 110-120 kg and females weighing 85-90 kg; male leopards weighing 40-80 kg and female leopards weighing 20-60 kg; while cheetahs are the smallest, weighing 21-72 kg, and males tend to be about 15%-25% larger than females. Among the three animals, the cheetah is light, the limbs are slender, the figure is streamlined, and it looks tall and thin; the leopard is well-proportioned, and the overall feeling is not fat or thin; the jaguar is the most muscular, with short limbs and a strong body, giving people a feeling of shortness.
A very muscular jaguar
Behavioral differences
Most cats live alone, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars are no exception, but relatively speaking, cheetahs have stronger social attributes, they have a higher tolerance for the same sex, so in some documentaries, we can often see several cheetahs due to predatory behavior and temporary alliances, this temporary alliance, after the phenomenon of separation after predation, academia called "short-lived cluster phenomenon", which is essentially different from social life.
Although the "transient swarm phenomenon" can be seen in both leopards and jaguars, it is obviously not as many as cheetahs.
Among the three animals, the speed of the cheetah is the fastest, which is the "magic weapon" on which it depends for its survival, and the cheetah uses its "fast running" ability to capture the prey in a pursuit way.
However, the cheetah's endurance is extremely poor, and it is necessary to slow down after running at high speed for a few minutes, otherwise the body will not be able to withstand it, and may even die as a result, so after a pursuit is unsuccessful, the cheetah will often give up the hunt.
Because running consumes too much, even if it catches prey, it has no way to eat immediately, and it must rest for a period of time, which is why cheetahs are often snatched away by animals such as hyenas.
Cheetahs running at high speed
Leopards and jaguars are both hunted in ambushes, but there are some differences between the two. In terms of behavior, the jaguar is closer to the tiger, and the leopard is not the top beast in most habitats, such as in the African savanna, the lion and the spotted hyena are its strong opponents, so the leopard mostly stays in the tree.
Although the jaguar is also good at climbing trees, it is not as good as the leopard, it is easy to understand, the jaguar is the top predator on the American continent, there are no natural enemies in adulthood, so it does not need to master too good tree climbing skills, the main activity time on the ground.
Leopards in trees
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > knowledge extension: black panther, snow leopard, clouded leopard</h1>
Reading to this day, we know that cheetahs and jaguars are not leopards in the strict sense, and we also know how to distinguish these three animals, but there is a existence that will make it difficult for many people to distinguish, even people with certain wildlife knowledge, they will feel embarrassed, that is, "black mutant individuals", whether it is jaguars or leopards, there is a phenomenon of "blackening", and blackened individuals are collectively called black panthers. This "blackening" is a harmless genetic mutation that is often manifested in traits that make the body completely black.
Black Panther (Leopard)
It is much more difficult to distinguish between blackened jaguars and leopards than normal individuals, because the hairs on their bodies have become black, so the shape characteristics of the markings are no longer applicable, and the size of the body is a more general way, and it is greatly influenced by the individual, so it is not a good method.
The best way to determine which species a panther belongs to is to look at the body size characteristics, jaguars are stronger than leopards, have obvious muscles, have a wider head, a more powerful jaw, a smaller proportion of tail to body, especially tumor-like protrusions on the inside of the eye socket, which is a typical feature of jaguars.
Black Panther (Jaguar)
Although the snow leopard is also a species in the genus Leopard and is closely related to tigers, it is not strictly a leopard. Among cats, the snow leopard has the highest habitat and is the flagship species in the highland snow mountain ecosystem.
Snow leopards are very beautiful, the hair on the whole body is gray-white, covered with stripes, but the snow leopard's markings are different from leopards, and most of them belong to irregular ring-shaped structures.
Because it lives in alpine areas, the snow leopard has very thick and fluffy hair, and it has one of the longest proportions of the tail of the cat family, and it can sometimes be seen biting the tail to protect the nose and mouth from frostbite.
snow leopard
There are two species in the genus Clouded Leopard, namely the clouded leopard and the Sunda clouded leopard, which are also species that do not roar in the leopard subfamily, and are also the smallest species in the leopard subfamily, which is about 1/3 to about half smaller than the snow leopard. The clouded leopard is also very beautiful, with a golden yellow body color and covered with large dark cloud-like markings, hence the name.
It also has a long, thick tail that helps them feel well balanced when moving around the tree. The tooth structure of the clouded leopard is quite different from that of modern cats, such as the extinct saber-toothed tiger, so the clouded leopard is also known as the "modern small saber-toothed tiger".
Clouded leopard