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North China leopard. Image author: Marie-Lan Nguyen..

The leopard is known to be the smallest of the four big cats. The other big cats are the tiger, lion and jaguar. It is a member of Felidae family. Their scientific name is ‘Panthera pardus’.

There are nine species of leopard; all of them except for the African leopard can be found in Asia, South Asia and India. Leopards have spots over their bodies, although the spots appear and develop with age. The spots help to camouflage this big cat so that it can blend in with tall grass or jungle. Many leopards are yellowish or tan with blackish spots. However, melanistic leopards are fully black, even though they have spots over their body, as they are so dark that the spots seem to be invisible. To confuse matters even more the black leopard is also commonly known as the 'black panther'. Male leopards weigh around 85 to 200 pounds (37 to 90 Kgs). However, females are about 30% smaller in size compared to male leopards.

Leopards are carnivores and mainly eat animals such as deer, antelope and pigs. Sometimes they also hunt for certain types of monkeys, rodents and birds. Leopards are known to be excellent climbers and to eat their prey they often bring carcasses up into trees to protect their kill from other predators. Leopards mainly hunt during the night. Since they also feed on livestock, they have been exterminated in many areas and are fast becoming an endangered species.

During the day time, leopards often rest in trees or bushes, preferring to live alone as they are solitary animals. Leopards are very agile and are also known to be good swimmers. They can run at over 58 miles per hour, jump up to 10 feet high into the air and leap over 20 feet in length. A leopard’s tail is almost as long as its entire body, and this helps a leopard to balance and make sharp turns very quickly.

When a female leopard is ready for mating she gives off a scent and rubs her body over trees and leaves to attract mates, as well as voicing a particular type of roar. After mating, a female leopard has a gestation period of 90 -105 days, after which she usually gives birth to two or three cubs at a time. When the leopard cubs are around 18-24 months old, they then leave their mother and find their own territory.

Leopards can be found in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Korea, China, India, Pakistan and Malaysia. They can inhabit mountainous areas, forests, deserts and grasslands.

Large troops of baboons have been known to attack and eat leopard cubs, and Nile crocodiles have been reported attacking and eating fully grown leopards which have strayed near the water's edge. Leopards sometimes attack dogs and occasionally people. However, leopards generally avoid people.

When there is a man-eating leopard on the loose it can be a deadly affair, as they will enter areas to hunt for human prey more frequently than a man-eating tiger or lion will. The 'Leopard of Rudraprayag' in India reportedly killed 125 people, and the 'Panar Leopard', again in India, reportedly killed over 400 people. Both of these man-eaters were killed by the legendary hunter Jim Corbett.