Talk:Leopard

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Contents 1 ??? 2 Killing Leopard?? 3 other leopards 4 Sabor nonsense 5 The Map 6 main image 7 Eland 8 New Species 9 Prehistoric subspecies 10 King leopard

[edit] ???

Am I the only person who thinks this sentence makes no sense: "The leopard is the fourth largest of the "big cats" in the world with the jaguar, lion and tiger being larger and the fifth largest of all cats with Pumas being slightly larger." Forget about the statement being grammatically incorrect by omitting a necessary comma between unrelated statements, but after all, if a puma is typically bigger than a leopard, how would a puma not be considered a "big cat", or transversely, how would a leopard be considered one of the 4 "big cats" if there are 4 cats bigger than it? Somebody please get out the eraser, because everytime I do it, somebody gets mad --- probably due to my lack of tact --- but dammit, somebody has to erase crap or it stays in forever.66.168.219.21 01:16, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Originally, it was thought that a leopard was a hybrid between a lion and a panther, and the leopard's common name derives from this belief; leo is the Latin for lion, and pard is an old term meaning panther. In fact, a "panther" can be any of several species of large felid. In North America panther means puma. In South America a panther is a jaguar. Elsewhere in the world a panther is a leopard. Early naturalists distinguished between leopards and panthers not by color (a common misconception), but by the length of the tail - panthers supposedly having longer tails than pards (leopards).Their coat has been adapted fo camoflage.

A black panther is a melanistic leopard (or melanistic jaguar). These have mutations that cause them to produce more black pigment (eumelanin) than orange-tan pigment (pheomelanin), resuilting in a pure black coat as opposed to the usual spotted one. See black panther). The spots of a black panther can still be seen in certain light as the deposition of pigment in different in the pattern than in the background. There are also white panthers.

Under distinguishing characteristics, it is written "really large cock!!! LIKE A DILDO". This should be deleted.

[edit] Killing Leopard??

What is this? The article explains how to shoot leopards??—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 207.224.67.19 (talk • contribs).

As I'm new, I'd not like to rewrite that part of the article, but I do agree. That bit is out of place as the "hunting" section was intended to discuss the leopard's hunting habits, not the way they are hunted by humans. If it were to be discussed, it should be in a different section all together. Also, the link on the word "humane" to the animal cruelty page is certainly not adding to the statement's worth.It is nast to kill animals.

[edit] other leopards

There should be a disambiguation page pointing to other leopard meanings: the german tank and the macosx 10.5 operating system

Leopard (disambiguation) - Randwicked Alex B 10:50, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

I would like to add my page on leopards to your external links please:

http://www.african-safari-pictures.com/leopard-picture.htm

[edit] Sabor nonsense

Sheeta is the word-name for a leopard in Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan. Sabor is the word-name for a LIONESS. I've read the brown-paged book. Sabor is only, as far as I know, the name of Tarzan's "leopard nemesis" in one home-made (I can't think of a better term, help?) Disney movie. Also, I'd like to see a citation for that long-tail/short-tail thing (hey, preferably primary source?). Who and when were these naturalists? What did people before them say? Panther and pard are derived pretty directly from Ancient Greek terms, as is leopard. Sorry to question this second thing, but it seems ridiculous. How much does a leopard's tail vary in length? A short-tailed leopard is (was thought, I know) a hybrid between a lion and a long-tailed leopard? How long are lion's tails? You're shaking some paradigms! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.149.99.2 (talk • contribs).

The Tarzan references are now corrected. Coyoty 20:08, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Map

Are the read areas, the places where leopards live? Because Turkey is marked red too but I doubt there's even one single wild leopard here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.240.34.80 (talk • contribs).

There are still Anatolian leopards in Turkey, which the organization Big Cat Rescue is working to preserve. Coyoty 15:01, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

That map is the historical ditribution of leopards. In no way does i represent the current situation. I will probably begin compiling a map which illustrates both past and present distribution soon. --Tommyknocker 12:19, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] main image

the main image for this article is certainly one of the best pics ive ever seen, however a high resolution version of it would be greatly appreciated. AlexOvShaolin 15:15, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

==Picture Have you seen many pictures? It would be laughed out of any art gallery, the leopard is a small portion of a small image, and the overexposure excludes half of the animals face. That's three strikes.

Gotskills22 03:04, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Eland

Leopard preys on common eland weighed 450 -900 kg? Give me a break! Who wrote this?--S--

Thanks for your comment. I changed it.--Altaileopard 12:09, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New Species

Any info about the new species?User:Sancassania

I guess you mean Neofelis diardi.--Altaileopard 12:06, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Prehistoric subspecies

In this edit an IP added some cat species which are no Leopard subspecies. "Panthera schaubi" is definitely not a leopard. Today it is called Viretailurus schaubi and is supposed to be a member of the Puma-lineage. (That does not mean it is a Puma!!!) Reference: Jordi Augusti: Mammoths, Sabertooths and Hominids 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe, Columbia University Press, 2002. ISBN 2001042251 (Page 223).

Panthera paleosinensis is called here an own species, which is probably closely related to the tiger.

For Panthera crassidens there are several papers which say it is a own species.

A subspecies of leopard has to have a trinominal name like Panthera pardus orientalis. Otherwise it is not a leopard.

--Altaileopard 12:05, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] King leopard

I recommend removing the king leopard section, making it the start of a new article, and replacing it with a shorter summary of that article. The current section is lengthy (between 1/4 and 1/3 of the article by word count) and focuses too much attention on a tangential topic. | Pat 15:53, 1 April 2007 (UTC)