Pound-for-pound, the leopard is one of the strongest carnivores on the planet. They are an ambush predator, a soft-footed sneaky feline that prefers the comfort of night to hunt. It is the most wide-spread big cat on the planet, found in most of Africa as well as India, China and even Russia. In Africa the most often confused relative is the Cheetah, but it's size and muscularity far outweigh that of it's feline cousin. They both share a yellow-brown coating with black marks, but the leopard's are rosette's. In comparison the Cheetah has small spots. Both have evolved to have these coats as a method of camoflauge to make hunting pray easier. Both leopards and cheetah's are almost entirely solitary, though the latter have been found to hunt in small groups usually with one or two siblings at the most.

Leopards are also the only big cat to spend considerable amounts of time in trees. They often use them to store food, keeping them out of reach from scavengers like Hyena's or Vultures.

They also use these trees as vantage points to spot potential pray. Their prefered method of hunting is to get as close to the desired catch as possible without being noticed, then launch themselves with a sharp, short burst of speed.

 

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