Have you ever seen a live leopard? Maybe you've seen this big, beautiful cat at the zoo. These large, beautiful cats are good climbers. They love to stretch out and rest on a tree branch. Leopard is also very intelligent. They store food on a tree. This prevents lions and hyenas from stealing your groceries. Leopard is super strong. He can hold his dinner in his jaws and climb 50 feet to the branch of his favorite tree. The leopard does not waste food. Later, when he is hungry, he will return several days later and eat the rest of the meal. He doesn't mind rotten meat. Anatomy: Let's learn about the body and fur of the leopard The leopard belongs to a group called "big cats". There are only three cats larger than him: the lion, the jaguar and the tiger. Its body is long and slender, at about 6.5-10 feet. It weighs anywhere between 65 and 155 pounds and grows to about 17.5 to 30.5 inches tall. It has short and sturdy legs. Its tail, almost as long as its body, helps Leopard to stay balanced when he is in a tree. The leopard's light brown coat is short and shiny, with flower-shaped spots on its back. The color of their coat depends on where they live: their habitat. Grassland leopards have a light yellow coat while those that live in forests are darker and have more spots. These "flowers", called rosettes, help the leopard blend in with the grasslands or forests. The spots become solid on the face and limbs and are shaped like a ring on the tail. The spots allow him to hide from other animals, such as antelopes and piglets that will become his dinner. He draws his super sharp claws into his paw until he needs them for climbing or fighting. Then he contracts a certain muscle and they come out, as if by magic! His head is big, big and he has very strong jaw muscles. The leopard has 32 teeth; four of its teeth are... in the center of the card....... People who study ecosystems and endangered animals are working to save leopards. Strange Facts Have you ever had a pet cat that liked to swim? Probably not, most cats hate water. But leopards are good swimmers! The leopard is really just a big cat. He purrs when he is happy. Growls when angry. They make a coughing sound to warn other leopards that they are coming. Film A leopard named "Baby" starred in the funny black and white film Bringing up Baby. Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant were his humans and Baby got into all sorts of trouble. National Geographic did a real special called Eye of the Leopard. In it, a leopard kills a baboon for dinner. But he sees a baby baboon clinging to its dead mother. Leopard took the child to his tree so that the hyenas would not take him for food. The mother leopard treated the baby baboon as she treated her cubs.