Sri Lanka Leopard
Scientific Name:Â Panthera pardus kotiya
Feature
Leopards are the most alert and shrewd of large carnivores, making them elusive. They also have very strong muscles in their shoulder blades and are the strongest climbers despite being the smallest of the feline species. As a result, they can kill prey that is larger than they are, and can even carry that prey up into the trees!
Size
Adult males are 110-150 cm long and weigh 55-70 kg. Females are significantly smaller, weighing only about 32 kg.
Habitat
The Sri Lankan leopard is found only in Sri Lanka. Other species of leopard are found in national parks and other protected areas, isolated forested areas in the hills and suitable habitats on the African and Asian continents.
Food
Rabbits, mice and langurs (monkeys). They also eat the flesh of other animals such as frogs and crabs.
Threats (CR)
Leopards were once widely distributed in eastern and southern Asia and Africa from Siberia to South Africa, with fragmented populations in the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia and China. However, overhunting and habitat loss have led to a drastic decline in its range. In the Sri Lankan leopard, the population is declining due to habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting for trade, the effects of pest control and poaching. There are records of six leopards being poached in the vicinity of Sri Lanka's national parks.
Did you know
Long tail.
A leopard's tail is longer than half its body length from head to base of tailSri Lankan leopards are the largest of the leopard species.
The absence of other large felines such as lions and tigers in Sri Lanka puts leopards at the top of the food chain. This is because they are not restricted by competition to hunt larger prey (medium and large herbivores).In fact, there are many black leopards.
In a Malaysian study, 95% were black leopards.Leopards are highly adaptable.
They can survive in a diverse range of environments, from ₋30°C to 50°C in terms of temperature and 0 m to 5 000 m above sea level in terms of altitude, including temperate forests, tropical rainforests, mountains, savannas and deserts. It has even been recorded that a family of leopards took over a football stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, and used it as their home. The source of this high level of adaptability is the diversity of food sources.Leopards feed on more than 200 vertebrate species.
Leopards have the most diverse prey of all felids. Therefore, even leopards that do not live in Sri Lanka can change their feed to small mammals, which are larger than leopards and do not have to compete for food with stronger larger felines such as lions, leopards and tigers, which feed mainly on similar prey.Leopards are nocturnal but may move around during the day
They may be encountered during the day, particularly in the early morning and evening, although this was first noted when domesticated dog and cat populations declined sharply.
Citation
Sri Lankan Leopard | Mammals in Sri Lanka | Dilmah Conservation. Dilmahconservation.org. Published 2017. Accessed April 12, 2022. https://www.dilmahconservation.org/about-animals/mammals--f9925cffabdd604dfab150bbcb49f2a8/srilankanleopard--d8dbbf72a303e551afe0fd6c44d31a6f.html