rare! What happened when the golden leopard appeared in Qinling?
It is understood that the field rangers of the Shaanxi Changqing National Nature Reserve located in Qinling Mountains, when carrying out daily monitoring work, passed through the Daping area at an altitude of about 2200 meters, and encountered a wild sub-adult golden leopard, only about 30 meters away, and they used a SLR camera to take a number of rare pictures of wild golden leopards in high definition. This is also the first time that someone in the reserve has observed the wild golden leopard so closely, and the first time that the wild golden leopard has been artificially photographed. Experts said that the whereabouts of the golden leopard are extremely secretive, and it is more difficult to meet the wild golden leopard than to win the lottery, and it is rare to be able to observe it so closely. As a yardstick for testing the health of forest ecosystems, the golden leopard once disappeared in the Qinling mountains. This species, which is distributed in the same domain as the giant panda, has appeared frequently in recent years, which proves the remarkable results of ecological protection in Qinling Mountains.
Golden leopard (Latin scientific name: Panthera pardus English name: Leopard) is the Chinese folk name for leopard. The golden leopard belongs to the carnivorous order, the cat family, and the leopard genus. It is a national key protected mammal. It resembles a tiger, but is slightly smaller than a tiger, with an adult body length of 235 cm–320 cm, a tail of 0.55–0.65 m long, a short head and short ears, a long tail, and slightly shorter limbs. The whole body is covered with round or oval black spots, hence the name "Golden Leopard". The dorsal, head, and outer limbs and the dorsal back of the tail are white, with a black tip. The idiom "peeping at the leopard", that "spot" refers to its money-like hair spots.
The golden leopard is similar in size to a tiger, but much smaller than a tiger. The golden leopard and tiger coat color are brownish yellow, in the brownish yellow hair is covered with black markings, the difference is that the black stripes of the tiger are stripes, while the black stripes of the golden leopard are round, or oval, because the middle of the stripes is not black, but brownish yellow, looking like the copper coins of ancient times, so it is named the golden leopard. Although the golden leopard is smaller than the tiger, it has a strong and powerful body, with a body length of 100-150 cm, a tail length of about 90 cm, and a general weight of about 50 kg. The thorax , abdomen , medial limbs , and underside of the tail are white , and the tip of the tail is black.
The leopard's habitat is diverse, including forests, jungles, grasslands, mountains, and hills. They may burrow, or inhabit grass or bushes. Because of its strong limbs, agile and flexible movements, good at climbing trees, strong jumping power, and bold and fierce, people often mention tigers and leopards.
The golden leopard is a nocturnal animal that sleeps in its habitat during the day, is active at night, and is more active in the early morning and evening. Although the golden leopard is not large and not as strong as a tiger, it can hunt large and medium-sized herbivores such as deer and wild boar. It can lurk in the grass, hide in the woods, ambush passing animals, and track behind herbivores, using the cover of nature to quietly gradually approach them, and then suddenly attack. You can also lie on the tree and attack the animals that pass under the tree with lightning. Not only that, the golden leopard can also catch the prey it catches, hold it in its mouth, and then sneak to a very high tree and hide the prey between the forks of the tree, because jackals, wolves, tigers, etc. cannot climb the tree, so these prey are enjoyed by itself. In addition to hunting large herbivores, such as deer, roe deer, hares, etc., the golden leopard also preys on small and medium-sized animals such as birds, apes, rodents, pangolins and so on.
Golden leopards generally act alone, except during winter or spring mating periods. Female leopards gestation period of 98-105 days, generally 2-3 litters per litter, and leopard cubs are sexually mature after 2-3 years. The golden leopard and other species of leopards sometimes attack farmhouses, livestock, poultry, etc., and also attack mountain pedestrians, so leopards are perceived as "pest beasts". In this way, when people see leopards, they naturally want to hunt and kill. Coupled with the fact that the leopard is not very large, people can kill the leopard with some simple weapons such as wood knives, axes, sticks, etc. Some newspapers reported that a sixty-seven-year-old woman and several of her young grandchildren had killed a leopard with their bare hands. In this way, the leopard, which was originally much larger than the natural number of tigers, could not catch up with the tiger due to over-hunting.
Another important reason why people like cheetahs is that leopard fur can make women's coats and sweatshirts, and the price is extremely expensive, and people regard wearing leopard skin clothes as a symbol of luxury. Therefore, some people who are greedy for money will try their best to hunt it down in exchange for a lot of money. Leopard can also be used in pharmaceuticals, as we all know, tiger bone wine can cure many diseases, and make people prolong life, deeply favored by people at home and abroad. However, the acquisition of tiger bones is becoming more and more difficult, so people think of using leopard bones instead of tiger bones to brew "leopard bone wine" instead of "tiger bone wine".
At the end of the 1970s, the leopard was listed as a national third-level protected animal in China, upgraded to a national second-level protected animal in 1981, and designated as a national first-level protected animal in 1983. Leopards are already among the endangered animals. In previous years, international trade conventions have also included leopards and all manufactured products of leopards, such as leather coats and bedding, which are prohibited from trade. These measures have greatly strengthened the protection of leopards.