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Following the discovery of the Siberian tiger in the mishan mountains of Heilongjiang, there was also an escape of the leopard in the safari park in Hangzhou. For a time, the topic of the golden leopard soared.
The leopard is a relatively good-looking cat, its body shape is well-proportioned, its posture is handsome, and the stripes on its body are as beautiful as flowers. They are also one of the most adaptable cats, surviving in a variety of climates and terrains.
There are also many rumors about leopards, such as "only Indian leopards can hurt people" and "leopards can't beat hyenas, they are always robbed", are these true?
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="6" > has high appearance, beautiful posture, and excellent visual and auditory sense</h1>
Broadly speaking, all animals in the leopard subfamily can be called leopards, but in academic circles, there is only one kind of leopard that is really leopard.
According to the geographical distribution differences, genetic differences, etc., it can be divided into 9 subspecies, namely: Persian leopard, Far Eastern leopard, Indian leopard, North China leopard, Indochinese leopard, African leopard, Sri Lankan leopard, Arabian leopard, Javan leopard.
The body size varies greatly between different subspecies, most of which are concentrated between 28-90 kg and the body length is 90-190 cm.
The leopard is the most versatile of the cats, and all cats will be skilled, and it will basically do. Tree climbing, in particular, is even comparable to primates.
There are 4 species of leopards in China, namely: Far Eastern leopard, North China leopard, Indochinese leopard and Indian leopard (also known as South China leopard). Historically, there are also more leopards in China, but the Chinese people prefer to call them "golden leopards", because the markings on their bodies are a bit like ancient copper coins.
Leopards are highly adaptable, widely distributed in Forests and grasslands of Africa and Asia, whether it is wetlands, grasslands, or dense forests, bushes, or even desert environments, they can survive well, which is related to the life habits of leopards. They can change their own activity laws according to different environments.
Leopards, like tigers, are ambush hunters, but leopards are much worse than the cheetah's 58% hunting success rate. Its ability to hunt depends largely on its well-developed vision and keen hearing: at night, even the slightest sounds emitted from great distances can arouse its alertness. Leopards attack in a variety of ways, often ambushing trees, and when the prey passes, they jump down and kill them.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="14" > because prey is always snatched by hyenas, so leopards are the most miserable animals? </h1>
When watching related documentaries, we often find that the prey that cheetahs have worked so hard to catch has been robbed by hyenas.
In fact, not only cheetahs, including leopards, the prey of many predators, will be more or less robbed by hyenas, not that they can't beat hyenas, but most solitary predators know how to measure gains and losses.
For example, scientists have observed the phenomenon of "food sharing" in animals such as mountain lions and tigers, and when a mountain lion appears in the feeding ground of another mountain lion, the two sides sit down together to eat their prey after a short trial.
On the one hand, leopards and hyenas have different body structures. Most cats have similar tooth structures, and the canine teeth are more degenerate, and although this tooth structure is suitable for hunting, it is relatively poor in handling prey carcasses.
The hyena's split teeth development, tapered anterior molars are extremely thick, coupled with a thick and strong jaw, the split teeth bite force is developed, can easily bite the bone, such a tooth structure is very handy in handling animal carcass debris.
Hyenas, on the other hand, are more courageous in fighting. If a leopard is injured, its hunting ability is greatly weakened, which means that there is no hunting to hunt, and what awaits it is most likely to be death. Even if the hyena is injured, with its excellent "scavenger" ability, it can survive on scavenging.
Moreover, leopards have a greater consumption of physical strength after a predatory action, and it is even less cost-effective to fight with hyenas, so most of the time, when facing hyena "robbery", they choose to avoid. However, the leopard has a trick, that is, to drag the prey up the tree, which can effectively avoid being robbed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="22" > only Indian leopards hurt people, Chinese leopards do not bite people? </h1>
The leopard fleeing from Hangzhou has aroused people's fear, but some people said that leopards are more cautious than tigers and will not hurt people.
But is this really the case? Apparently not.
India has a large population, stray dogs, and a large number of leopards. According to Xinhua News Agency, New Delhi, December 21, 2020, the number of leopards in India increased by more than 60% between 2014 and 2018, and by 2018, the number of leopards in India reached 12,852.
These leopards do not only live in the rare deep mountains and old forests, but also have a large distribution in the suburbs and ecological forests. Even in mumbai, a big Indian city, leopards break into the streets almost every day at night to hunt stray dogs.
Due to frequent contact with humans, the strangeness of indian leopards to humans has disappeared. Over time, you will find that there is nothing remarkable about human beings except to be tall and frightening.
At the same time, India has 75% of the world's wild tigers, as well as a large number of sloth bears, jackals and other beasts of prey, so leopards face a more brutal competition for survival.
When there is a high pressure to survive, they will actively seek more sources of prey, and India's large number of people engaged in underdeveloped agricultural labor have become the target of leopard attacks.
So why are Chinese leopards so rarely hurtful?
The main reason is that there is less contact with humans and less pressure to survive.
Not to mention tigers, in most forests, even lynx are rare species. Take the hinterland of western Sichuan, there are more rock sheep, white-lipped deer, white-lipped deer, wild boar and other animals, leopards do not lack prey. In addition, China's leopards are mainly distributed in the Taihang Mountains, Qinling Mountains, southwest hinterland, northeast and other rarely populated areas, and there are few opportunities for contact with humans, and strangeness makes them afraid of humans.
Compared with tigers, leopards are indeed less aggressive and have a greater sense of fear of humans, but don't forget, rabbits are anxious to bite people? Not to mention that it is also a large carnivorous beast.
When wild animals enter the environment where humans live, their nerves become highly tense, and if they are stimulated, they are likely to have a stress response and become aggressive.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="35" > in recent years, the beast has frequently descended the mountain, is it because the environment is good? </h1>
Although the golden leopard found in the Mountain Forest of Zhuantang in Hangzhou a few days ago is not a wild leopard, but a fled from Hangzhou Wildlife World.
But I believe that everyone has such a feeling: in recent years, the number of large carnivorous beasts entering the human activity area has indeed increased.
A Siberian tiger entered the village of Mishan Linhu on April 23 this year; around March last year, a wild golden leopard from Xinlong County, Sichuan Province, entered the village and ate a dog from a farmer's family.
Many people attribute the reasons why such wild animals go down the mountain to the three reasons that there are more tigers and leopards, the environment is better, and there are not enough prey, which is actually inaccurate.
Although the number of tigers and leopards in the country is indeed rising, the wild environment is indeed getting better - for example, the establishment of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park marks that the protection of the Northeast tiger and leopard has entered a new era, and the protection is more comprehensive. But the reason they go down the mountain into human villages is more complex and diverse.
Tigers and leopards are two more similar animals, they have a high degree of mobility and significant exploration behavior, especially males, after sexual maturity, leaving the mother, will be as far away from the place of birth as possible, establishing territory farther away, which is the survival wisdom of animals to avoid inbreeding.
One of the most important aspects of wildlife conservation is the restoration and establishment of ecological corridors, which is conducive to the migration of species and the dispersal of juveniles, affecting the reproduction and development of the entire population. With the improvement of ecological corridors, some areas that originally survived the golden leopard but later became extinct, if the environment becomes suitable for leopards to survive again, then leopards in these areas may return again. In this way, the animals can mistakenly enter the human village through the ecological corridor.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="43" >what if we encounter a leopard, what should we do? </h1>
First of all, don't think you can beat it.
As a professional carnivore, its hunting skills have long been honed in the long process of evolution. Don't turn around and run, as this will stimulate its desire to hunt, unless you are behind the door and you are absolutely sure that you can escape to a safe area.
In the case of a leopard, different situations have different methods, if the leopard is just staring at you, and has no intention of further attack, at this time you should slowly retreat along the same path until you are safe and immediately call the police.
If the situation is tense at the time and the leopard has a clear desire to attack, it should try to make noise and slowly retreat until it is safe to call the police immediately.
Of course, the best way is to prevent it from happening, and not to rush into the leopard-infested area alone.