Panther or leopard
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
The leopard, or panther, is a felid animal of the family. Its peeling is yellow and cover of tasks in rivet washers black. Some leopard, more often named black panthers, have a very dark dress where tasks the although present ones badly are distinguished. It is a genetic anomaly involving a surplus of melanin.
It has an life expectancy of about 12 years in freedom, whereas some can reach 20 years the honourable age in captivity. Its size is approximately 1.50 m to 2.50 m length and 60 cm to 70 cm with the tourniquet. The leopard weighs between 50 kg and 80 kg.
DIET
Their food mode is very varied. It is generally composed of ungulates, insects, birds but also of monkeys. He does not scorn either the small preys such as hares, field voles< or the prickly customers.
The panther is a solitary hunter, contrary to the lions and the hyenas. It drives out the night, at dawn and the twilight, making profitable the appearance of its peeling to camouflage itself. It approaches silently its prey before throwing itself on this one to kill it by strangulation by planting its hooks in the throat of the animal. It then hoists its victim in a tree to withdraw it from the other carnivores.
DISTRIBUTION
The leopard lives in Africa (in the south of the Sahara), in Asia, but also in Central America and Patagonie. He lives in places varied like the covered with snow mountains, the tropical forests or the jungles of India. One generally finds it in the wooded areas or the bush where the fresh water is abundant.
LIFE CYCLE
A fixed period ago of reproduction. When the female is ready to couple itself, it emits a characteristic urinate that the males recognize immediately. It often happens that the same female finds itself with several applicants. Those must then fight to conquer the future partner, because only the winner will have the privilege to couple himself.
Once the designated winner, the couple will remain together during 6 to 7 days, as long as the female will be in heat. Then the male will turn over on its territory and will let the female only raise its small.
Gestation lasts approximately 3 months and half. The female puts at the world a range from 1 to 6 small.
With the birth, the small ones are blind and weigh approximately 500 G. At the end of 1 year, the young people leave their mother to live in their turn as a recluse.
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