The leopard is a solitary and
territorial animal. It is typically shy and alert when crossing roadways and encountering oncoming vehicles, but may be emboldened to attack people or other animals when threatened. Adults associate only in the mating season. Females continue to interact with their offspring even after weaning and have been observed sharing kills with their offspring when they cannot obtain any prey. They produce a number of vocalizations, including growls and snarls. Cubs call their mother with meows and an
urr-urr sound. The whitish spots on the back of its ears are thought to play a role in communication. It has been hypothesized that the white tips of their tails may function as a 'follow-me' signal in
intraspecific communication. However, no significant association were found between a conspicuous colour of tail patches and behavioural variables in carnivores. Leopards are mainly active from dusk till dawn and will rest for most of the day and some hours at night in thickets, among rocks or over tree branches. Leopards have been observed walking up to across their range at night; wandering up to if disturbed. In western African forests, they have been observed to be largely
diurnal and hunting during twilight, when their prey animals are active; activity patterns vary between seasons. Leopards can climb trees quite skillfully, often resting on tree branches and descending headfirst.
Social spacing his territory In
Kruger National Park, most leopards tend to keep apart. Males occasionally interact with their partners and cubs, and exceptionally this can extend beyond to two generations. Aggressive encounters are rare, typically limited to defending territories from intruders. Females live with their cubs in home ranges that overlap extensively, probably due to the association between mothers and their offspring. There may be a few other fluctuating home ranges belonging to young individuals. It is not clear if male home ranges overlap as much as those of females do. Individuals try to drive away intruders of the same sex. Sizes of home ranges vary geographically and depending on habitat and availability of prey. In the
Serengeti, males have home ranges of and females of ; but males in northeastern Namibia of and females of . They are even larger in arid and montane areas.
Hunting and diet The leopard is a
carnivore that prefers medium-sized prey with a body mass ranging from . Prey species in this weight range tend to occur in dense habitat and to form small herds. Species that prefer open areas and have well-developed anti-predator strategies are less preferred. More than 100 prey species have been recorded. The most preferred species are
ungulates, such as
impala,
bushbuck,
common duiker and
chital.
Primates preyed upon include
white-eyelid mangabeys,
guenons and
gray langurs. Leopards also kill smaller carnivores like
black-backed jackal,
bat-eared fox,
genet and cheetah. In urban environments,
domestic dogs provide an important food source. The leopard depends mainly on its acute senses of hearing and vision for hunting. It primarily hunts at night in most areas. They usually hunt on the ground. In the Serengeti, they have been seen to ambush prey by descending on it from trees. It stalks its prey and tries to approach as closely as possible, typically within of the target, and, finally, pounces on it and kills it by suffocation. It kills small prey with a bite to the back of the neck, but holds larger animals
by the throat and strangles them. Before their extirpation from Europe, leopards there cached their meat in caves, as evidenced by fossilised bone accumulations in caves such as Los Rincones in the
Province of Zaragoza, Spain. Leopards are known to drop from trees onto Impalas, which is probably an opportunistic hunting behaviour. A leopard falling from a height of 2.69 metres onto the back of its prey (3.55 metres total height), takes 0.7 seconds to fall and reaches a terminal velocity of 25 km/h; this hunting technique requires that the prey be unaware of the predator's attack and it also requires great precision to avoid falling on the horns of males, which allows for a safe attack. Average daily consumption rates of were estimated for males and of for females. It has been reported that leopards lose 5–10% of their kills to other predators in the Serengeti.
Enemies and competitors Across its range, the leopard coexists with a number of other large predators. In Africa, it is part of a large predator
guild with lions, cheetahs,
spotted and
brown hyenas, and
African wild dogs. The leopard is dominant only over the cheetah while the others have the advantage of size, pack numbers or both. To counter this, leopards store their kills in the trees and out of reach. Lions have a high success rate in fetching leopard kills from trees. In Asia, the leopard's main competitors are tigers and
dholes. Both the larger tiger and pack-living dhole dominate leopards during encounters. Interactions between the three predators involve chasing, stealing kills and direct killing. Tigers appear to inhabit the deep parts of the forest while leopards and dholes are pushed closer to the fringes. The three predators coexist by hunting different sized prey. In
Nagarhole National Park, the average size for a leopard kill was compared to for tigers and for dholes. At
Kui Buri National Park, following a reduction in prey numbers, tigers continued to feed on favoured prey while leopards and dholes had to increase their consumption of small prey. Leopards can live successfully in tiger habitat when there is abundant food and vegetation cover. Otherwise, they appear to be less common where tigers are numerous. The recovery of the tiger population in
Rajaji National Park during the 2000s led to a reduction in leopard population densities.
Reproduction and life cycle In some areas, leopards mate all year round. In
Manchuria and
Siberia, they mate during January and February. On average, females begin to breed between the ages of 2½ and three, and males between the ages of two and three.
Gestation lasts for 90 to 105 days. Cubs are usually born in a
litter of 2–4 cubs. The mortality rate of cubs is estimated at 41–50% during the first year. After separating from their mother, sibling cubs may travel together for months. The average life span of a leopard is 12–17 years. == Conservation ==