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Rocky outcrops of the Deccan Plateau are critical habitats for leopards, especially outside protected areas.
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In areas where leopards survive with other large predators such as tigers and dholes, they tend to spend more time on trees to escape competition aggression.
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Leopard cubs are dependent on their mother for about 12 to 18 months before they leave to live independent, mostly solitary, lives.
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Leopards are excellent tree climbers and can be called the Spider-Woman/Spider-Man of the large cat world.
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Leopards have very strong shoulder muscles that help them climb trees and also hoist the carcass of their prey up trees.
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Like most other large cats, leopards kill their prey by strangulation.
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Leopards are quite shy and normally avoid coming out into the open during the daytime except to drink water.
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Tens of leopard cubs are taken into captivity under the wrong assumption that their mothers have abandoned them. Then, the animals are forced to spend a lifetime in cages.
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The strawberry leopard found in South Africa has a little-understood genetic condition called erythrism possibly caused by an overproduction of red pigments or an underproduction of dark pigments.
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The melanistic leopard, or the black leopard, is not a different species; it appears black because of a gene that causes a surplus of pigment in the skin or hair.
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Sanjay Gubbi with a sedated leopard in Karnataka.
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Studying leopards by placing radio collars on them is an important way to understand various aspects of leopard behaviour and human-leopard conflict.
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Sanjay Gubbi taking morphometric measurements of a male leopard that was radio-collared to monitor its movements.
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A leopard’s age can be estimated on the basis of the how worn down the teeth are and their colouration. Here, researchers measuring the length of the canine of a young leopard.
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Pugmarks and other signs leopards leave in their habitats are good tools to study leopard distribution and other aspects of their biology.
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The rosette patterns on a leopard’s flank are unique to each animal and help researchers when they have to distinguish between animals that look similar. Using camera trap images, researchers can estimate leopard numbers.
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Human-leopard conflict in recent times in the country has forced the capture and translocation of hundreds of leopards.
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In India, hundreds of leopards are captured and translocated annually in response to public pressure.
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Although leopards are found in highly human-dominated landscapes, they face a high risk of mortality, including death caused by wire snares set to catch wild prey.
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The persecution of leopards for their body parts, such as this pelt, is one of the serious threats they face.
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“Leopard Diaries” (Westland Publications, Chennai, 2021, Rs.599) is arguably the first deeply researched book on leopards in the country.
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