Friends who often watch "Animal World" must be familiar with the names of leopard, golden leopard, and Far Eastern leopard, in fact, these are different names of leopards in different regions.
In taxonomy, leopards refer to the leopard species of the leopard genus of the subfamily Leopard family of carnivorous cats that live in much of Africa and Asia, from the scorching Sahara Desert to the cold Russian Far East. Some of them are body color variations that are produced to adapt to the environment, such as black panthers, and some are different names in different regions, such as leopards and leopards.
According to the latest DNA taxonomy, there are nine subspecies of leopards, of which the African leopard, which has the most exports on television, is the well-known subspecies of this species (the earliest subspecies of a species). They are found all over the African continent and weigh from 40 kg to 90 kg; the proportion of the head to the body is small; the limbs are muscular; most of the body is covered with yellow fur, the front of the neck and the chest and abdomen and the inside of the limbs are white; the ears and tail tips are black; there is a white spot on the back of the ear; the spots on the head are small relative to the torso; they feed on animals such as deer, gazelles, and wild boars, and sometimes attack monkeys and birds, along with cheetahs that are carnivores.
The hegemon of South America, the jaguar
Jaguar, also known as jaguar, is the largest surviving carnivore in the South American continent, mainly inhabiting the Amazon rainforest, North America and Mexico is also distributed, is currently the world's third largest cat after tigers and lions. Like the leopard, the jaguar's body is covered with spots, but it is not solid, but a large hollow patch with small black spots inside.
The jaguar is stout, weighing an average of 115 kilograms, and is as good at climbing trees as a leopard, but its body is much stronger, and it looks a bit like a tiger. The hairs are golden or orange-yellow , occasionally producing white individuals ; the tail is about 1/3 of the length of the body ; and there is a sarcoma-like bulge on the inside of the orbit of both eyes , which is the most distinctive feature that distinguishes them from leopards and lions and tigers.
Jaguars have a bite force of up to 1250 pounds, which allows them to easily crush the skulls of most prey when hunting, and is currently the only cat that bites the skull as a means of hunting (the rest are throats). As a result, jaguars have a wide range of diets, with sambar deer, wild boars, otters, sloths, fish, monkeys, and sometimes even ferocious caimans and borers being targeted.
jaguar
Sprint champion – cheetah
The Cheetah is the champion sprinter on land, reaching a speed of 110 kilometers per hour. Being able to have such an excellent speed has a lot to do with their body structure, which can be roughly summarized into three points: first, the cheetah is the only cat that cannot retract its paws, and the claw tip is blunter than other cats, and the friction with the ground is greater; the second is that the cheetah's vertebrae are very soft, and the front and back legs can be brought closer to each other as much as possible when running, so that the body becomes arched, and then quickly bounces forward; the third is that the cheetahs are lighter in weight, and the legs and tails are longer, which makes them stride larger when running , there is less resistance, and balance can be maintained with the tail in the event of an emergency stop.
However, running fast will also cause the body temperature of cheetahs to rise to the limit of what their bodies can withstand within 30 seconds, at which point they must stop or their lives will be in danger. In addition, the thin body shape evolved to facilitate running, as well as smaller claws and canine teeth, made the cheetah's fighting ability seriously insufficient, unable to defend its prey, and often became the target of robbery of stronger predators such as lions, leopards, hyenas and so on.
cheetah
Icefield Killer – Snow Leopard
Snow leopards, as the name suggests, their body color is close to white, and they live in colder highland areas, which look like snow from a distance. The snow leopard's body color is actually grayish white, covered with black markings, and the thick and long tail has a circle of rings, which is the only big cat that can put its tail in its mouth.
Snow leopards, with an average body length of 1.6 to 2.3 meters and a weight of 21 to 55 kilograms, inhabit alpine areas of 2000-6000 meters, with shrubland, bare rock, meadows, and the edge of coniferous forests as their main activity sites, feeding on alpine herbivores such as goats and rock sheep, and sometimes attacking sick yaks or left-behind cubs. Judging from the current situation, China is the country with the largest number of snow leopards, and it is distributed in Tibet, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and other places.
snow leopard
A clouded leopard that loves to climb
Inhabiting southeastern Asia from Nepal to Taiwan, the clouded leopard is no more than 1.1 meters long and weighs no more than 40 kilograms, making it the smallest member of the subfamily of the cat leopard, named after the large cloud-like dark markings on the sides of the body.
Don't look at the clouded leopard is small, but the length of the canine teeth and the proportion of the body are the largest in the existing cats, and they can easily pierce the throat of prey. Also due to its small size, the clouded leopard is very good at climbing, often hiding in tall trees. Jumping off unexpectedly to attack prey, small and medium-sized deer, monkeys, rats, hares, and even birds are all options for their recipes.
Clouded leopard
A relative of the clouded leopard, the Sunda clouded leopard
In addition to the clouded leopard, in recent years, scientists have found xun four sounds on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo, and compared with the clouded leopard on the mainland, their body color is darker and the cloud-like patches on their bodies are smaller.
DNA studies have found that the Sunda clouded leopard migrated to the island from the mainland about hundreds of thousands of years ago and later stayed there due to changes in terrain.
Leopard
Leopard (scientific name: Panthera pardus): is a large carnivorous animal of the mammal family, cat family, leopard genus, with a body length of 100-150 cm and a weight of 50-100 kg. The body resembles a tiger, but is significantly smaller; the body is uniform, the limbs are medium long, and the execution is performant. The senses of sight, hearing and smell are very developed. The head and tail are long, the limbs are short and strong, the forefoots are 5 toes, the hind feet are 4 toes, and the claws are grayish white and can be retracted. The hair is yellow, full of black ring spots; the spots on the head are small and dense, the spots on the back are dense and large, and the spots are round or oval plum-like patterns, which are quite similar to ancient copper coins, so they are also known as "golden leopards".
It lives in forests, shrublands, wetlands, deserts and other environments, and its nests are mostly built in dense trees, shrubs or caves. There is a solitary life, often nocturnal activities, resting in trees or caves during the day. In places where food is abundant, the range of activity is relatively fixed; when food is scarce, it wanders for tens of kilometers to forage. Guard their own more fixed territory, the male's realm is larger than the female's. It preys on a variety of ungulates, but also monkeys, rabbits, rodents, birds and fish, and also eats sweet berries in autumn. When food was scarce, he also sneaked into the village at night to steal poultry and livestock.
It is widely distributed, spanning many parts of Asia and Africa, from the Himalayas to the Sahara Desert.
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