Barbary Leopard
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| Barbary Leopard | ||||||||||||||||
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| Panthera pardus panthera (Schreber, 1777) |
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[edit] Description
With possibly just a handful surviving in the wild, the Barbary or Atlas Leopard is one of the most threatened of the leopard subspecies. The leopard is an elegant and powerful cat, more slender than the South American jaguar, but more stocky and robust than the cheetah. Its well-muscled body, thick limbs and broad powerful paws, all give this animal an air of great strength. Its beautiful coat is a pattern of black spots on a highly variable background colour of golden yellow, rusty yellow, pale brown or fawn, which tends to be darkest on the back. The black spots form rosettes over much of the body, but more solid spots over the lower limbs, belly, throat and face. Its dappled fur provides excellent camouflage and enables the leopard to hide itself in the most meagre of coverings.
[edit] Range
The range of the Atlas Leopard is not clear. Thought to once occur in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, it now just survives in Middle Atlas mountains in Morocco.
[edit] Habitat
In north-west Africa, pine forest and Mediterranean scrub is thought to be suitable habitat for the Atlas leopard. They are confined to the more remote and rugged areas, ranging from the foothills up to 3,000 metres above sea level in Morocco.
[edit] Threats
Little is known about the status of the Atlas Leopard, other than the population is believed to be worryingly small, estimated to number fewer than 250 mature individuals and declining. The greatest threat may be that which is impacting other leopard subspecies - the expansion of livestock farming. The presence of livestock can reduce leopard numbers through overgrazing and habitat modification, or through intentional persecution by humans who believe that leopards kill livestock.
[edit] Videos
To watch the Atlas Leopard in the wild go to: http://www.arkive.org/north-african-leopard/panthera-pardus-panthera/videos.html
[edit] References
- Cat Specialist Group (1996). Panthera pardus ssp. panthera. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this subspecies is critically endangered and the criteria used
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