Meet the Leopard

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Have you ever seen a live leopard? Perhaps you saw this big, beautiful cat at the zoo. These big, beautiful cats are good climbers. They enjoy stretching out and resting on a tree limb. Leopard is also very smart. They store food way up in a tree. This keeps lions and hyenas from stealing their groceries.

Leopard is super strong. He can hold dinner with his jaws and climb 50 feet up to his most favorite tree limb. Leopard does not waste food. Later when he gets hungry, he will come back several days later and eat the rest of his meal. He doesn't mind rotten meat.

Anatomy: We Learn about Leopard's Body and Fur

Leopard belongs to a group called "big cats". There are only three cats bigger than him - lion, jaguar and tiger. His body is long and slender, at about 6.5-10 feet. He weighs anywhere from 65-155 pounds and grows to about 17.5-30.5 inches tall. He has short, sturdy legs.

His tail, almost as long as his body, helps Leopard stay balanced when he is in a tree. Leopard's tan colored coat is short and shiny, with spots shaped like flowers on his back. The color of the coat depends upon where they live – their habitat. Grassland leopards have a light yellow coat and those who live in forests are darker and have more spots.

These "flowers", called rosettes help leopard blend in with grasslands or forests. The spots become solid on his face and limbs and are ring-shaped on his tail. Spots let him hide from other animals, like antelope and bush pig that will become his dinner.
He draws his super sharp claws in his paw until he needs them for climbing or fighting. Then he clinches a certain muscle and they come out, like magic!
His head is big, big and he has very strong jaw muscles. Leopard has 32 teeth; four of his teeth ar...

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.... The people that study ecosystems and endangered animals are working to save leopards.
Weird Facts
Have you ever had a pet cat that liked to swim? Probably not, most cats hate water. But, leopards are good swimmers!
Leopard really is just a big cat. She purrs when happy. He growls when he gets angry. They make a coughing noise to warn other leopards they are coming.
Movies
A leopard named "Baby" starred in the funny black-and-white movie Bringing up Baby. Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant were his humans and Baby got into all sorts of trouble.
National Geographic made a true special called Eye of the Leopard. In it, a leopard kills a baboon for dinner. But, she sees a baby baboon holding on to her dead mother. Leopard carried the baby up to her tree home so hyenas would not grab it for food. The mother leopard treated the baby baboon like she treated her own cubs.

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