Leopard-The Most Amazing and Dangerous Animal
Living With Leopards
Leopard is one of the fastest, strongest and amazing climbers of all the large cats, Even capable of killing prey much larger than itself. It is widely known for its unique skills of climbing over the trees, jumping and adaptation.
Leopard is very adaptable and can live in many different environment, They have developed special skill which helps them to survive and obtain food. Leopard is one of the wild animal adopted city culture and actually living with humans.
Indian Leopard is the most amazing and dangerous animal of wild India, living very close to human settlement and tempted to prey on dogs, pigs, goats and domestic livestock. Leopards have a surprising favorite food as stray dogs.
Deforestation and loss of natural prey brings Leopards closer to human settlements area, even in the metro cities like Mumbai,Pune and Banglore. Maximum human–leopard conflict situations has been recorded high in Karnataka, Maharashtra,Gujarat,Rajasthan and Uttarakhand state.
Leopards are distributed all over India, from the Himalayas to dry deciduous forests and tropical rain forest. Indian subcontinent is home to the five big cats found in the world and Leopard one of the most abundant big cat species on the subcontinent.
Distribution and habitat ranges of a single leopards comprised about 50km of area in the wild forest and diet of Indian leopards includes deer,wild pig,langur, hare and peafowl. Leopards hunt the widest variety of prey of any any other big cats, that includes small Crocodiles,python,Turtle and Porcupine.
Indian Leopard is one of the most exclusive and successful members of Indian big cats but facing a huge problem of habitat loss. They have nowhere to live and they sometimes wander into cities,towns and apartments in search of food. There are number of leopards attacks have been reported in India, one of the most deadliest leopard attacks on Human is in the Siliguri, Leopard enters school in Bengaluru and leopard attack in Maharashtra.
Four Leopards are getting killed each week in India by villagers and Road Kills pose a high risk to Leopards in India. India has lost more than 500 leopards due to road accidents in last few years.
The biggest threats is hunting of Indian leopards for the illegal wildlife trade. Because of loss of wild prey,habitat loss,poaching for the illegal trade of skins and body parts,populations of Indian Leopards have been declined. Image source-conservationindia
Black Panther or Melanistic Leopard is a color variant of Indian leopard, Mostly found in densely forested areas of south India of Karnataka,Kerala and Assam. Kabini wildlife sanctuary is the most famous wildlife sanctuaries to spot Black Panther in India.
