Leopard – Panthera pardus

is one of the five “big cats” in the genus Panthera. It is a member of the family Felidae with a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.[2] Fossil records found in Italy suggest that in the Pleistocene it ranged as far as Europe[3] and Japan.[4] Compared to other members of Felidae, the leopard has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull. It is similar in appearance to the jaguar, but has a smaller, lighter physique. Its fur is marked with rosettes similar to those of the jaguar, but the leopard’s rosettes are smaller and more densely packed, and do not usually have central spots as the jaguar’s do. Both leopards and jaguars that are melanistic are known as black panthers.

There are several subspiecies of leopard:

African leopard (P. p. pardus)
Indian leopard (P. p. fusca)
Arabian leopard (P. p. nimr)
Persian leopard (P. p. saxicolor),
North-Chinese leopard (P. p. japonensis
Amur leopard (P. p. orientalis
Indochinese leopard (P. p. delacouri)
Javan leopard (P. p. melas)
Sri Lankan leopard (P. p. kotiya)