There are 3 types of leopards*** in nature: a money leopard, a snow leopard and a clouded leopard. The leopard we usually refer to is the money leopard. In the idiom of "a glimpse of the leopard a spot", the "spot" refers to its money-like fur spots. The leopard is widely distributed in all provinces and autonomous regions of China, and there are many areas where leopards are found in China, such as Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Beijing, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places where leopards have been captured. There are also more subspecies of leopard, mainly three subspecies: the Northeast subspecies, also known as the Northeast Leopard, which is found in the Changbai Mountains, the Xiaoxingan Mountains, and several other mountain ranges. According to zoologists' estimation, the total number of Northeast Leopards in nature may be less than 100, and it is recognized as one of the rarest subspecies of leopards in the world. There is also a subspecies for the North China leopard, mainly produced in the mountains of Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei and other places, the northwest region also has its traces. This is China's only endemic subspecies of leopard, the number of existing is not much. Another subspecies is the South China leopard. The South China leopard has the widest distribution among the three subspecies of leopards, and its number far exceeds that of any of the previous two subspecies of leopards. It is distributed in the south of the Yellow River, Yunnan, Tibet, Hunan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and other provinces. There were tens of thousands of South China leopards in the 1950s, but due to over-exploitation of the forests and hunting, the number of South China leopards has been significantly reduced.
The leopard's body shape is similar to that of a tiger, but it is much smaller than a tiger. Both the leopard and the tiger have brownish-yellow fur, and the brownish-yellow fur is covered with black markings. The difference is that the tiger's black markings are striped, while the leopard's black markings are rounded or oval, because the middle of the markings is not black, but brownish-yellow, and it looks like the copper coins of the ancient times, which is why it got the name of money leopard. Although smaller than a tiger, the money leopard has a strong and powerful body, with a body length of 100-150 centimeters, a tail length of about 90 centimeters, and a general weight of about 50 kilograms. The chest, belly, inner limbs and underside of the tail are white, and the tip of the tail is black.
The leopard because of the limbs, agile and flexible action, good at climbing trees, jumping force is very strong, and bold and fierce, so people often mention the tiger and leopard.
The leopard's habitat is diverse, forests, jungles, grasslands, mountains and hills are the leopard's figure. They either live in dens, or in bushes and trees.
The leopard is a nocturnal animal that sleeps soundly in its habitat during the day, and then comes out at night, and is more active in the early morning and evening. Although the leopard is not large, not as strong as the tiger, but can hunt deer, wild boar and other large and medium-sized herbivores. It can lurk within the grass and hide among the trees to ambush passing animals. It can also track behind herds of herbivores and, under the cover of nature, quietly and gradually approach them and then suddenly attack. It can also ambush in the trees and lightning actively attack the animals walking under the trees. Not only that, the leopard can also catch the prey, in the mouth, and then scampered to a very high tree, the prey hidden between the tree forks, because jackals, wolves, tigers, etc. is not climbing trees, so these prey by its own alone to enjoy. In addition to hunting large herbivorous animals, such as deer, roe deer, hares, etc. for food, but also prey on birds, apes, monkeys, rodents, pangolin and other small and medium-sized animals.
The leopard generally acts alone, except during the mating season in winter or spring. Female leopards have a gestation period of 98-105 days, usually 2-3 cubs per litter, and cubs become sexually mature after 2-3 years.
The leopard and other species of leopards sometimes attack farmhouses, livestock, poultry, etc., but also attacked pedestrians in the mountains and fields, so the leopard in the people's impression of the "vermin". Therefore, it is natural for people to kill leopards when they see them. In addition, the size of the leopard is not too big, so people can kill the leopard with some simple weapons, such as wood knives, axes, sticks and so on. Some newspapers reported that a 67-year-old woman and her grandsons killed a leopard with their bare hands. In this way the leopard, which was originally much larger than the tiger's natural population, has lost ground to the tiger due to overhunting.
Another important reason why people like to hunt leopards is that the fur of the leopard can be used to make women's coats and sweatshirts, which are extremely expensive, and people regard wearing clothes made of leopard skin as a symbol of splendor. So some people who are greedy for money try to hunt it down and kill it in order to get a lot of money.
The leopard can also be used to make medicine, as we all know, tiger bone wine can cure many diseases, and make people live longer, favored by people at home and abroad. But the acquisition of tiger bone is more and more difficult, so people thought of using the leopard's bone instead of tiger bone to brew "leopard bone wine", instead of "tiger bone wine".
In the late 1970s, the leopard was listed as a national third-party protection of animals in China, 1981 was upgraded to the second level of protection of animals in China, and in 1983 was designated as a national level of protection of animals. The leopard has entered the ranks of endangered animals. A few years ago, the International Trade Convention also included the leopard and all manufactured products of the leopard, such as leather garments and mattresses, in the scope of the ban on trade. These measures have greatly strengthened the protection of the leopard.