Leopards lead big cats in survival

Leopards. Of all the big cats in the wild, leopards turn out to be the most successful at surviving today, according to a recent “Nature” program (“Revealing the Leopard”) on TV. Their first habitat was the African rain forest; now, scattered thinly through Africa and Asia, they cover nearly half the world.

Why and how are leopards succeeding?

Described as “the perfect predator,” the “clever” leopard – though slower than the cheetah and weaker than the lion, hunts with his/her wits. Usually nocturnal, leopards are shy and private, and careful killers. They also eat a wider range of prey than all other predators in the world.

Leopards are particularly adaptable, having learned of necessity to live in or near towns and cities; in India, for instance, they’re much more adaptable than lions and tigers.

One theory behind why leopards don’t eat humans is that prehistoric people may have terrified them; even now they avoid people.

“Panthers” are black leopards because a recessive gene has given them their different fur color. Think of red-haired humans; same thing.
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3 degrees of well-being for 3 kinds of cats

“Tigers and leopards and domestic cats” doesn’t have quite the same ring as “Lions and tigers and bears (oh, my!),” but it’ll have to do because that’s what this post is about: three degrees of well-being among cats both large and small.

Tigers first. These beautiful creatures are gravely endangered. In fact, according to a NYTimes editorial on Nov. 23, “tigers could go extinct in the wild within 20 years.” Unbelievable? Not once you learn that a century ago “there were an estimated 100,000 tigers living in the wild” – and now “there are perhaps 3,200 left.”

A summit meeting underway right now in Russia may make the difference for tigers. It has drawn conservationists and World Bank reps as well as delegates from the “13 nations with tigers living in the wild, including India, Indonesia, Thailand and Russia.”

The hope is for a focused conservation strategy and an end to the trade in tiger parts. Details available via this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/opinion/24wed4.html?emc=eta1

(To be continued after Thanksgiving: leopards, who are reportedly making out much better in the modern world than tigers, and an amazing cat sanctuary in California.)
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Strange food-fellows

Answering my plea for good animal news, a California friend forwarded photos of a leopard and a mouse sharing a meal: the leopard’s.

The accompanying story had it that her keeper had just put the 12-year old leopard’s raw meat into her enclosure when a mouse suddenly appeared and began eating it. Instead of finishing off the mouse, the leopard merely sniffed and sort of nudged the rodent -- who kept on eating. And that was that.

And the leopard shall sit down with the mouse. . . and "do lunch." Or something like that.
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