Let us learn about the comparison between leopard and hunting leopard.
Comparison # Leopard:
1. Appearance:
Sleek short-haired animal, ranges about 215 cm (7 ft.) in length. Females are 30 cm (1 ft.) shorter than the males.
2. Coat:
Fulvous or bright fulvous coat marked with small close-set black rosettes.
3. Claws:
Extremely sharp, long and retractile claws.
4. Claw sheath:
Present.
5. Head:
Rounded head.
6. Distribution:
India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Sikkim, Nepal, Sind, Baluchistan and Africa.
7. Example:
Panthera pardus (Leopard)
Comparison # Hunting Leopard:
1. Appearance:
Long-legged slim built animal, ranges over 120 cm (4 ft.) in length. Tail is about V2 of the total length of head and body.
2. Coat:
Coat varies from tawny to pale buff with solid close-set black spots.
3. Claws:
Sharp, long and almost retractile, but Maurice and Robert Burton (1975) report that claws are blunt and can partly be retracted.
4. Claw sheath:
Totally absent. So the Cheetah’s claws are always bared.
5. Distribution:
Smaller round head, relatively smaller than that of other cats.
6. Distribution:
It ranges from Algeria to Morocco to Mauretania and the Transvaal, and in the east to Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria and Persia. Whether the Cheetah still survives in the wild condition in India or in other parts of Asia is not known.
In India, the last three males were shot in Baster district, M.P. in 1948 (Prater, 1980). Talbot (1960) mentions a definite report in 1951 when 3 were shot in one night followed by the sighting of a pair in Hyderabad. The last record of the Indian cheetah is by Kirkpatric (1952) who saw one specimen in April 1952 at Chitoor District in Tamil Nadu.
7. Examples:
Acinonyx jubatus (Cheetah).