Leopard Habitat Worldwide

A few hundred years ago, leopard habitat used to stretch across the entire globe but that was before man disturbed the balance of nature and caused the decline of what was once the most widely distributed feline apart from the domestic cat.

Regal Leopard At Rest

In Africa there is still a healthy population of these beautiful cats south of the Sahara due to the fact that there are still plenty of areas that their adaptive capabilities allows them to survive in as well as a relatively large number of national parks and game reserves where they are conserved.

But it's outside of Africa where the decline has been shocking and most of the leopard populations in the rest of the world apart from India are critically endangered.

Leopard Habitat and Status Globally

• Amur leopard - Confined to the Sikhote-Alin mountain range in Russia. Critically endangered (fewer than thirty left in the wild).

• Barbary Leopard - Inhabits the Atlas mountains of Northwest Africa. Critically endangered (estimates vary from extinction to 250 left in the wild).

• Indian Leopard - Ranges across the whole of India. Lower risk status.

• Sri Lanka Leopard - Exist only in protected areas on the island. critically endangered (less than 600 left in the wild)

• South Arabian Leopard -  Absent from the true desert of central Arabia and confined to the remote foothills of Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Critically endangered

• Anatolian, Indo-Chinese, Iran, Java, North China and Sinai leopards are all critically endangered with populations declining in the wild.

The only way for these populations to increase and become stable is through the long term protection and conservation of leopard habitat in these areas.

Even this master of adaptability which can go undetected living close to human settlements because of its stealth and camouflage is no match for poachers and habitat destruction in the long run.

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Leopard pictures of this cat with cubs, tree climbing with a gazelle in its mouth, showing its canines and more...

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