Throughout Africa, the major threats to Leopard are habitat conversion and intense persecution as leopards come into conflict with people across their range. A rapidly increasing threat to leopards is the poisoning of carcasses targeting carnivores, either as a means of predator control or incidentally. Skins and canines are also still widely traded domestically in some central and West African countries where parts are used in traditional rituals and sold openly in villages and cities.
Family: Felidae
Scientific name: Panthera pardus
Common name: Leopard
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Status: Vulnerable (A2cd) ver 3.1
Population estimate: 2813 to 11632
Approx. number of mature individuals: 1688 to 6979
Population trend: Decreasing
The leopard is part of the felidae family and can be found in a variety of habitats, however, their territories often include dense bush areas and rocky out crops to aid them in hunting and hiding. Leopards have a rustic gold coat covered with black rosettes. This feline is one of the larger predators – measuring 60 to 80cm at the shoulder and weighing between 40 and 90 kilograms.
The leopard is an adaptable, widespread species that nonetheless has many threatened sub-populations. While still numerous and even thriving in some marginal habitats from which other big cats have disappeared in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, in North Africa leopards are on the verge of extinction.
RESERVES : Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, Mkhuze, Somkhanda
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Throughout Africa, the major threats to Leopard are habitat conversion and intense persecution, especially in retribution for real and perceived livestock loss (Ray et al. 2005). Leopard come into conflict with people across their range. A rapidly increasing threat to Leopards is the poisoning of carcasses targeting carnivores, either as a means of predator control or incidentally. (IUCN)
The impact of trophy hunting on populations is unclear, but may have impacts at the demographic and population level, especially when females are shot. (IUCN) Skins and canines are still widely traded domestically in some central and West African countries where parts are used in traditional rituals and sold openly in villages and cities (Hunter et al. in press).
The leopard is an adaptable, widespread species that nonetheless has many threatened sub-populations. While still numerous and even thriving in some marginal habitats from which other big cats have disappeared in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, in North Africa leopards are on the verge of extinction. There are no reliable continent-wide estimates of population size in Africa, and the most commonly cited estimate of over 700,000 leopards in Africa (Martin and de Meulenaar 1988) is flawed.
Near threatened, the species is at risk, but is not as yet considered vulnerable to extinction in the wild.
