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Cats and representatives of the cat family have always been interesting to man. These are very graceful, agile and fast animals with a wonderful unique color. Since the cat is considered to be a pet, this species cannot be called endangered in any way - as long as a person keeps cats at home, they are not threatened with extinction. However, in natural conditions, the cat becomes less and less every year, some species are about to disappear. Smoky leopard can be attributed to one of them.
Description
The clouded leopard does not belong to either large or small cats - it occupies an intermediate position, combining the features and characteristics of those and others. Yes, and in size it can be called rather an average cat.
The length of the animal (excluding the tail) is approximately 85 to 105 centimeters. Height at withers reaches half a meter. Fluffy tail is almost the entire length of the body and can reach 90-95 centimeters.The pride of the predator is covered with fur, which forms a tassel at the end and is decorated with black rings.
Leopard weighs about 20 kilograms, some larger individuals living in places where there are no problems with food, gaining 5-10 pounds more.
In smoky leopards, like in a considerable number of mammals, sexual dimorphism is present - the male is always larger than the female.
A distinctive feature of the smoky leopard is the special structure of the teeth, the canines are given forward almost 4 centimeters. For such a small animal, these are rather large teeth, which is why they often compare the smoky leopard with a saber-toothed tiger. The head of the animal, like all cats, is elongated, yellow eyes with oval vertical pupils are also feline, the nose is pinkish, sometimes with black specks.
Paws for an animal of this size are rather short, the front ones are slightly shorter than the rear ones. Large claws fully protrude and hide deep into the limbs. When walking, the leopard touches the ground only with his fingers, and not with his entire foot.
Habitat
In the wild, the clouded leopard lives in tropical and subtropical forests of the southeast Asian regions: in southern China, in Malacca, the habitat extends from the foothill regions of the Himalayas up to Vietnam, many individuals live in Bhutan, Bangladesh and the expanses of Thailand. Once there was even a separate subspecies in Taiwan - the Taiwan smoky leopard, but, to the chagrin of many cat lovers, it died out long ago.
In addition to dry forests, this animal is often found in swampy areas, but there it spends most of its time not on the ground, but prefers trees, where it is drier and less biting parasites.
Behavior
Little is known about how leopards behave in their natural habitat. Most of the information obtained from observations of leopards in captivity. These animals can not be counted as day or night - they hunt at any time of the day, when it is more convenient for them. Although more like to do it in the dark time, knowing that many of their potential victims are sleeping.And the beast hunts not only on the ground, sneaking up for the victim, stalking it, and then with a rapid jerk attacking the prey, but also on the trees. Physical features and belonging to the cat genus allow leopards to live under the canopy of trees, on which they climb and climb perfectly. And they are not just climbing, but they can do some kind of acrobatics on them - hang on a branch, clinging to their paws, move their heads downwards, and so on. Trees, for the most part, are used as a resting place and refuge from land leeches living in Asian forests.
Each leopard has its own controlled area of territory in which it considers itself the complete owner. As a rule, the area is 30-45 square kilometers, of which 4-5 are actively used.
Breeding
Not much is known about the life of the smoky leopard in its natural habitat. All the knowledge about this is obtained by observation in captivity. According to researchers, leopards are monogamous animals.
They become sexually mature in 25 - 30 months. But, unlike many animals, they are not so simple - to get acquainted and to express feelings, cats need to talk for a while, get used to each other, spend several weeks together.Experts argue that otherwise, if the female has a male dislike, he bites her to death.
In the conditions of zoological gardens, the process of mating occurs in the winter months - from the end of November to the beginning of March, but under natural conditions animals can mate at other time intervals throughout the year. Animals are copied over several days many times. The male usually bites the female by the neck, and she announces the surroundings with a cry, making long moans. In nature, animals conduct the process of mating on elevated hilly areas so that the sound is carried far away.
After the mating process, the animals part, and the care of the offspring falls entirely on the female shoulders.
Pregnancy lasts about three or three and a half months. In the second month, the abdomen becomes noticeable, the nipples increase. When it comes time to give birth, the female climbs into the hollow of some tree, where the action takes place. The number of kittens born may be up to five, but usually the female gives birth to two cubs. They are born weighing up to 150 grams (depends on the number of births, the more - the easier the newborn)there are already large specks characteristic of the species on the body. Only the spots are completely black and only at the age of six months they begin to lighten in the middle.
Newborn mother carefully licks, striving to ensure that children are always clean. She continues to do so until the kittens learn to wash themselves.
Small leopards are born blind, eyes open in 5-10 days, in the first three weeks of life their paws are weak, grow stronger for 20-21 days, and the children begin to walk and run in the woods themselves. And after six to seven weeks they are already able to climb trees with passion.
Mother feeds children with milk up to 10-12 weeks. Although already at 7-8 weeks, offers heirs meat and adult food, and they do not refuse. While the parent is getting food for the offspring, they hide from enemies and dangerous animals in abundant forest thickets. With the mother, the kittens live a long time - up to ten months, gaining strength, growing up and learning adult skills and hunting. In the eleventh month, matured leopards begin to live adulthood and go in search of new territories of their own.
Nutrition
The clouded leopard belongs to the breed of predators and feeds mainly on animal food. In the trees he catches monkeys, catches and eats birds that are being picked up, with pleasure, he can easily balance in the trees. With a caught victim, he finishes with one blow of a mighty paw. On the ground, lies in wait and catches deer, goats, wild boars. Can catch and bully a buffalo. Having caught the prey, climbs on a tree, settles on a high branch and gnaws at the doomed animal's throat or breaks its back.
Being excellent swimmers, they catch and eat fish.
The leopard tries to stay away from human habitation, but if a person or elements expels an animal to people, then the beast begins to hunt livestock, causing harm to a person.
The enemies
In addition, the peasants show great dissatisfaction with the fact that animals steal livestock and, trying to defend their goods, wage war against forest thieves - they set traps and traps, throw poisoned meat into the forest.
Under natural conditions, animals are at odds with other cats - tigers and panthers. Those kill leopards, trying to eliminate competitors. That is why smoky leopards spend most of their lives on trees so as not to meet their rivals.
Interesting
- The Asian people warrior who killed a leopard, was considered a brave and courageous warrior. As a sign of special valor, he wore the skin of a fallen beast.
- This type of leopard does not know how to roar loudly, scaring people around. He, like a domestic cat, purrs softly and gently.
- On average, this species of leopard lives 11-12 years. In captivity, they live to 17-8 years, but in nature - no more than 15.
- The animal is rather peculiar and although it is called a leopard, but it has no direct relation to these animals.The clouded leopard is a rather ancient species, there is an opinion that it is the ancestor of all the current large cats existing in nature.
- It is believed that cats are afraid of water. But this is not about smoky jaguars - they feel great in the water element and swim very well. According to one of the versions, on some islands (for example, Borneo), the ancestors of smoky leopards reached by swimming.
Video: Smoky Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)
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