Leopard on tree

The leopard is the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Compared to other members of the Felidae, the leopard has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull. It is similar in appearance to the jaguar, but is smaller and more slightly built. 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 jaguars do. Both leopards and jaguars that are melanistic are known as black panthers. Of all the big cats the leopards are reported to be "the most numerous and wide spread of the big cats". Its natural design is perfect and is known for its sleekness, smartness and power. It is a predator with tremendous physical power and has immense capability to kill animals which are bigger than itself.

Quotes

• A leopard does not change his spots, or change his feeling that spots are rather a credit.
  • Ivy Compton-Burnett, More Women than Men (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, [1933] 1951), p. 54.

• Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
  In the cool of the day...
  • T. S. Eliot, Ash-Wednesday (1930)

• The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
  • Isaiah 11:6 (KJV)

• Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?
  • Jeremiah 13:23 (KJV)

• Put a leopard and a [Deinonychus] together and the former would be in trouble.
  • Gregory S. Paul (1988) Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 362-363

• Noi fummo i Gattopardi, i Leoni; quelli che ci sostituiranno saranno gli sciacalletti, le iene; e tutti quanti Gattopardi, sciacalli e pecore, continueremo a crederci il sale della terra.
  • We were the Leopards, the Lions; those who'll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas; and the whole lot of us, Leopards, jackals, and sheep, we'll all go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth.
  • Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard (1958), p. 191

• "I hate to tell you this," Jason said, "but I think your leopard just ate a goddess."
  • Rick Riordan, The Lost Hero, Heroes of Olympus Book 1 (Penguin UK, 2010), Ch. VII: Jason

• A leopard doesn't change his spots just because you bring him in from the jungle and try to housebreak him and turn him into a pet. He may learn to sheathe his claws in order to beg a few scraps off the dinner table, and you may teach him to be a beast of burden, but it doesn't pay to forget that he'll al ways be what he was born: a wild animal.
  • George Lincoln Rockwell, Interview with Alex Haley, published in Playboy (April 1966).

• Leopards on the gable-ends,
  Leopards on the painted stair,
  Stiff the blazoned shield they bear,
  Or and gules, a bend of vair,
  Leopards on the gable-ends,
  Leopards everywhere.
  • Vita Sackville-West, "Leopards at Knole", Collected Poems (1933), p. 143

• King Richard II: ...[L]ions make leopards tame.
  Thomas Mowbray: Yea, but not change his spots:
  • William Shakespeare, Richard II (1595), Richard, Act I, scene i, lines 174-5

• The leopard is the most numerous and widespread of the big cats. It is perfection in natural design – sleek, smart, and powerful. Capable of amazing physical prowess, the leopard is a formidable predator; able to bring down prey significantly larger than itself.
  • Gamble, Cyndi (2004). Leopards. Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0-89658-656-7. 

• All leopards have spots on their furs.
  • Schaefer, Lola M. (2002). Leopards: Spotted Hunters. Capstone. ISBN 978-0-7368-0966-5. 

• A leopards spots help it blend in with its surroundings. The blending is called camouflage. Animals with camouflage can not be easily spotted in tall grasses, bushes and trees.
  • "Leopards: Spotted Hunters"

• The leopard is the most secretive and elusive big cat.
  • Leopard. African Wildlife Organization. Retrieved on 24 December 2013.

• Leopard coat does not belong on humans.
  • Leopard by the "African Wildlife Organization"

• Leopards can be a nuisance to locals
  • Leopard by the "African Wildlife Organization"

External links

• Gamble, Cyndi (2004). Leopards. Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0-89658-656-7.