Talk:Leopard

The Leopard is also the mascot of the University of La Verne in eastern Los Angeles County, California... www.ulv.edu —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.142.205.224 (talk) 21:09, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Leopards are categorized as endangered

http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/SpeciesReport.do?spcode=A01J —Preceding unsigned comment added by Amnesta (talk • contribs) 03:28, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Leap of Leopards

Perhaps the fact that the collective noun of a group of leopards is a Leap should be mentioned in the article? see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_by_subject_I-Z 67.182.22.63 23:58, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

???

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)

This problem is caused by the fact that "big cat" has two meanings. The Tiger, Lion, Jaguar and Leopard are a genetically-related group of large cats and the popular term for them is "big cat." However, pumas are not as closely related to the others but happen to be bigger than leopards. If the Snow Leopard article here is accurate, they are also bigger than leopards, which isn't that surprising.

The snow leopard is smaller than a leopard. I will check the article... --Altaileopard 08:48, 5 June 2007 (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.

While albinism is almost unheard of in Leopards, there were been some 'sport' leopards, with very pale, possibly white, coats with light brown tawny markings, and blue eyes reported in Kenya in the 1950s

I have seen no reference to any White leopards since, does anyone have a reference for a more recent sighting? chrisboote 09:05, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

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

Killing Leopard??

What is this? The article explains how to shoot leopards??— Preceding unsigned comment 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.

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

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! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.149.99.2 (talk • contribs)

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

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. — Preceding unsigned comment 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)

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)

well it's gone now, i suggest some one puts in a new one pretty quick - Derob ecnirp (talk) 17:21, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

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)

Well.... I did.... here are the references - [1]

Profberger 17:45, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

I have taken photographs of a leopard dragging its Eland kill into a bush and eating it.

I could post here, but aren't they original research?

Research is only the written word. Your pictures are good as not breacking copyright laws.--Big5Hunter 11:45, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Kudu is far more commonly a prey animal in South Africa

chrisboote 09:08, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

New Species

Any info about the new species?User:Sancassania

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

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)

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)

Categories

I think there is too many categories in this article, it's distorving and helpless. Tigermighty 21:57, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I think there are to many categories in the engl. wikipedia. But I do not know what we can do against this problem. --Altaileopard 10:00, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

We can delete all the un-necessary categories. Tigermighty 23:13, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

I would say all "Fauna by country catergories" are useless. Every country has hundrets, if not thousands of animal species. The only geographic categorys, which make sense are such like "category:mammals of Africa" or better "category: mammals of the Afrotropic ecozone".... but I don´t know how to do this... How to delete for example "Category:Fauna of Vanuatu"?--Altaileopard 16:13, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Like this. Tigermighty 20:06, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Okay, but than the category is still there and only the leopard is missing. But I will act in this way and delete uncomplete and unneccessary cats in future.--Altaileopard (talk) 18:46, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Humans as prey

Quote from the article:

Most healthy leopards prefer wild prey to humans, but cats who are injured, sickly or struggling with a shortage of regular prey often turn to hunting people [...]

That's interesting - why do healthy leopards avoid easy prey like humans? Icek 12:38, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Humans are not always easy prey. Almost every wild mammal on earth fears armed humans as most dangerous predator.--Altaileopard 13:18, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

It's true that humans are not always easy prey, but why would injured leopards prefer them? Or does it only appear to be so because human-hunting leopards are more often seen injured? Icek 18:05, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, I would guess, that a injured leopard, who is not able to hunt fast antelopes or deer, would be very hungry. And such a hungry cat will probably try to attack even such a potential dangerous prey like humans... And if this animal learns, that they are actually not so dangerous, it will probably try to kill them again...--Altaileopard 15:07, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

But how do they know/believe that humans are dangerous in the first place? If they learn that by experience, shouldn't young leopards also be likely to eat humans, and maybe get used to it? Icek 18:17, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

No, they learn it from their mother... If they had to learn by try and error, it would be very dangerous for them, cause they would probably try to eat a lion...--Altaileopard 18:53, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers. I would think that some part of the hunting behaviour is instinctive. When they learn from their mother, I assume that they have to actually see humans while learning. So leopards who have not grown up close to human settlements should also be dangerous. Icek 17:07, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

I think there are only very few places on earth today, (if any?), where a young leopard can not even smell a human... Moreover I would guess, that most animals instinctively fear something, what they have never seen before. But actually it could also be, that such a leopard would be very curiuos... and probably even dangerous..... I don´t know this..--Altaileopard 16:19, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

The Leopard People

Wasn't there an African secret society or religion known as 'The Leopard People' for whom the Leopard was a totem? Nothing about it in the wikipedia though, yet. Colin4C 14:09, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Oops, that's incorrect. Here it is: Leopard Society.Colin4C 19:58, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Map

How accurate is the map? Are there really leopards in Java (Indonesia). Not to my knowledge. Does anyone have a reliable reference to say that they are in Java? --Merbabu 01:45, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard#Heraldry the photo 3/4 of the way down on the left under Heraldry is set to high and blicks out text -pardus10-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard#Heraldry the picture 3/4 of the way down under Heraldry is set to high and blocks the text above it 67.60.11.83 23:49, 13 August 2007 (UTC)pardus1067.60.11.83 23:49, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

for later

http://www.cheetah.org/ama/orig/leopard.pdf —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marskell (talk • contribs) 16:44, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=40975

http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=ENV&recid=4026878&q=Panthera+pardus+habitat&uid=1040057&setcookie=yes —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marskell (talk • contribs) 20:39, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.2981%2F0909-6396(2005)11%5B145%3ASAAPOL%5D2.0.CO%3B2 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marskell (talk • contribs) 22:04, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

http://www.biolsci.monash.edu.au/research/leopards/docs/ecojournal-2003.pdf —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marskell (talk • contribs) 17:11, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:xKLsNOTdxR8J:lynx.uio.no/lynx/catsgportal/project-o-month/02_webarchive/grafics/nov2005.pdf+Panthera+pardus+territory+marking&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=28 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marskell (talk • contribs) 11:31, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

el zeu es mi sosio —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.52.129.188 (talk) 08:03, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Heraldry

I´m from Germany and I´ve never heard of the leopard being an (unofficial) national animal of Germany. I would like to know where this idea comes from. Btw. the coat of arms of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg shows three lions, the "Stauferlöwen", not three leopards. --Noirceuil 23:37, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Modern culture

Modern culture

*Possibly the most famous cinematic leopard is the pet in the film Bringing Up Baby (1938) where its misadventures create madcap comedy for stars Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn; the movie is one of the American Film Institute's "100 Greatest (American) Films".

• In the 1999 Tarzan movie by Disney, a vicious leopard, Sabor, was Tarzan's natural and mortal enemy, although the Mangani name for leopards established in the books is "Sheeta".

• In Passion in the Desert (1997), a French soldier (played by British actor Ben Daniels) while lost in Egypt during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign stumbles upon a leopard and develops a strange relationship with the animal.

*Traditionally, the leopard is an uncommon name or mascot for sporting teams, though it has been used in several African soccer teams: the AFC Leopards, formed in 1964, are a soccer club based in Nairobi, Kenya, while the Black Leopards play in South Africa's Premier Soccer League, the Royal Leopards in Swaziland's Premier League, and the Golf Leopards in the Sierra Leone National Premier League. More recently, the leopard emblem has been a part of the English Basketball League since the 1990s with the Essex Leopards and later London Leopards. The New Zealand Rugby League has featured the Otahuhu Leopards and then the Tamaki Leopards.

• The use of Leopards by companies is uncommon, though Nissan Leopard was a luxury sports car produced by Nissan in the 1980s and Apple Inc. released Mac OS X version 10.5, nicknamed "Leopard" on October 26th, 2007.

• In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, leopards are seen fighting alongside Peter Pevensie.

• The titular character of the Japanese heroic fantasy novel series Guin Saga has a leopard mask magically affixed to his head.

This is a random list. Properly sourced, turned into prose, and sourced, it can go back in. Marskell (talk) 18:50, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Sorry for the revert. I've prosified it. Now to find some refs. Sorry I find stuff disappears off talk pages and the Cary Grant movie and Tarzan are pretty notable Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:43, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Black panthers

I changed the first sentence about black panthers being a name for black leopards. It's probably the first thing people think of, but it is also used for melanistic jaguars. --Blechnic (talk) 06:10, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the change. I concur with your reason and action. --DavidD4scnrt (talk) 07:57, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Collaboration to FA

Ok, if anyone would like to chip in for a FA collab on this one, please just jump in. Here's a list of things that need to be done:

• The latter part of the article is in great need of referencing.
• Much of the article needs touch-ups in its writing, and use more encyclopedic terms.
• Some parts need to be removed, while certain other sections not currently here need to be added. Lion is a good model of how this article should look.
• Please feel free to add more items to this list.

Cheers, and thanks for your participation. -- Anonymous Dissident^Talk 02:16, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I can vouch for part of what's in the present article, including some of Physical characteristics and most of Biology and behavior and Ecology. Clearly, the biggest issue is everything from Variant coloration on down. Marskell (talk) 16:18, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "vouch". If you know some good sources please include them! I'm going to tag some areas that need sources and then spend a few minutes later trying to find some. Beach drifter (talk) 16:27, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I mean that I added and referenced material in these sections. Please don't tag bomb this. Marskell (talk) 16:34, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Sections

I'm not sure that the heraldry and leopard men sections belong in the article. They each have their own article. Leopard Society needs to be added to the disambig page, and I think both would be more appropriate in a "See also" at the end. I'm not concerned about it, I just thought it would tighten up the focus of the article and help it towards FA. Beach drifter (talk) 16:52, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I could probably live without Leopard men but Heraldry has been established elsewhere; see Cultural depictions in Lion. Let's get a third opinion.

Another problematic section is Pumapard. This (and much of our info on cat hybrids) originates at messybeast.com[2], which doesn't meet our sourcing policies. The information could be worthwhile but we need it from a different spot. Marskell (talk) 17:01, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I noticed that also. Looked like a pretty terrible source. In fact it looks like most of the feline hybrid articles have poor sourcing, as I've been scanning those hoping for a decent one. Beach drifter (talk) 17:12, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Melanism

We need to work on this. The Variant coloration section began life as King Leopard added by an anon who indicated they were reproducing material from messybeast.com. Indeed, it looks like much of it was culled from here. The problem with messybeast, as noted above, is that it's got cool info but just doesn't meet policy. The Black leopards section doesn't have very good sources either.

I'm tempted to just cut everything and rebuild it from scratch. Thoughts? Marskell (talk) 11:35, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Agree this has to be good - the whole black panther/blacl leopard thing is highly notable. stick in cite tags where needed and we can go from there, and always comment out or place on talk page for GAN if folks wanna do that. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 11:37, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

PS: I must say, I was always a firm beleiver in improving existing material but had to eat my words recently as a couple of FAs I've done like that have been a much worse headache than if I had started from scratch. Go for it. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 11:38, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

• this looks a little more promising WRT RS...Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 11:43, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

• and this points the way to some reliable book refs methinks...Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 11:45, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Up the page you mentioned that sometimes material gets removed and is then completely forgotten about. In this sense, I can agree with you. However, on a number of FAs I have so reworked sections I might as well have removed the initial material; and if stuff clearly comes from a non-reliable source, it's often best to get rid of it. I'll get to work on melanism. Marskell (talk) 11:58, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

True. One solution I have used is one of those 'to-do' boxes, like on the talk page of vampire - that way it doesn't get lost under a swathe of talk notes or get lost in archvies. If you feel it may be prudent, we can set one up here and place material that just might be worthwhile if it can be cited with a RS. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 12:48, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Ah, you're so smart Cas. Generally I just do an informal bullet list on my own. Where's the to do template at? Marskell (talk) 14:18, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

(outdent) I've never been good at using it though, just dumping stuff like a bull in a china shop really. Still it has been useful...Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 14:26, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Only thing is, can't use headings in to-do box as it mucks up this page big-time...Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 14:39, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

So which picture is better?

I honestly cannot understand how the current picture is better than the previous one showing the whole animal.

At least the reverted one showed the animal's whole body and profile in motion. Plus, it was a good for camparison with the infobox pictures on the tiger and cougar articles which are almost in the same position. In a nutshell, I think the current picture does no justice to the animal, and that the pic dislplayed here is better. Dark hyena (talk) 14:54, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Conservation status

In the introduction paragraph it says that leopard is in least concern status. That's good for the leopard. But on the very same page concervation status label says that leopard is NT (near threatened) status. Now , that's somewhat bad news. Which is correct LC or NT ? Nedim Ardoga ~ ~ ~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.175.166.246 (talk) 08:59, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

NT is correct, unfortunately. I've adjusted the text. - UtherSRG (talk) 05:45, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Humans as Central Cause of Population Decline

The intro currently has this curious statement:

"the leopard's range of distribution has decreased radically over time because of a variety of factors, including human influence"

I'm changing that to:

"the leopard's range of distribution has decreased radically over time due to hunting and loss of habitat"

If anyone has a reference to some other significant factor, please specify it additionally. —Preceding unsigned comment added by NPOVerty (talk • contribs) 09:05, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Leopard/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

I'm afraid that there has to be some serious work done to get this article to match the Good article standard. I will have a second look at the article if my main concerns are met.

Things that must be improved:

• The refs 4, 6 and 7 are dead.
• The refs (23 see below), (24 see below), 31, 32, (38 see below) and 46 need information about the publisher (and the author if possible).
• The ADW (ref 23 and 38) is not a reliable source, since "The Animal Diversity Web is an educational resource written largely by and for college students." It has to be replaced.
• Seaworld.org (ref 24) is certainly not a reliable source for infos about leopards, at least it is a self-published source and we do not know about the knowledge of the author.
• I am not convinced that ref 42, 46 and 51 are reliable sources. Why do you think that they are?
• "the number growing from the time of Linnaeus in the 18th century to that of Reginald Pocock in the early 20th." This needs a clarification.
• "Their list as follows:" This list contains 10 subspecies, not 9.
• "given a massive skull that well utilizes powerful jaw muscles." utilizes: very strange wording.
• The chapter on Variant coloration is much too long, especially compared to the quite short chapter about general physical characteristics. I propose to merge some aspects of the paragraph "Most other colour morphs of leopards are known only [...]" (lacks sources!) with the previous paragraph "A pseudo-melanistic leopard has a normal background color, [...]" and to remove all (also unsourced!) paragraphs starting with "In a paper about panthers and ounces of Asia, [...]".
• "It is a powerful swimmer, although, not as strong as some other big cats," A swimmer can be fast and/or enduring, but not strong.
• In References: "Leopards and spots on ears and tail [1]" What?
• The ref 27 contains strange information and needs to be formatted properly.
• "and are capable of carrying animals up to three times their own weight this way." needs a source.
• "Eventually, a fight for reproductive rights may take place." This does not flow with the previous and the next sentence and has to be explained.
• "but infant mortality is high and usually no more than 1–2 cubs survive beyond their infancy." needs a source.
• ", while the sexual difference in range size seemed to be in positive proportion to overall increase.[35]" What? I don't understand the meaning of this.
• "Leopards have adapted to live alongside these other predators by hunting at different times of the day, and by avoiding areas frequented by them." needs a source.
• "though numerous products worldwide have used the name." This needs clarification. What's the meaning of used the name?
• "Leopard domestication has also been recorded [...]" That's not domestication!!!
• The whole Tourism chapter needs sources.
• "most leopards avoid humans." This needs a source, badly.
• "In extreme cases, both in India: a leopard dubbed [...]" Wrong grammar.

Things that should be improved:

• "The species' success in the wild" Probably not the best wording regarding its recent decline of population numbers.
• "Felis pardus was one of the many species described in Linnaeus's 18th-century work, Systema Naturae.[5]" Why is this useful to know? It should most likely be removed.
• "Older taxonomic divisions" According to whom?
• The chapter about general physical characteristcs is very short, at least some information on sensory perception and maybe locomotion should be added.
• "Leopards have been reported to reach 21 years of age in captivity.[18]" This belongs in the "life cycle" chapter.
• "The leopard is primarily a nocturnal creature, and many of its operations are done by night." The second part of the sentence is totally redundant to the well-known word nocturnal.

Fixed Seduisant (talk) 20:14, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

• "The pregnant females find a cave, crevice among boulders, hollow tree, or thicket to give birth and make a den." find a cave: strange wording.
• "Leopards and humans have many relations," have many relations: strange wording.

Content placed elsewhere and offending sentence removed. Seduisant (talk) 23:53, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

Things that could be improved:

• It's always good to have two or three sentences out of the chapters reproduction/life cycle/social structure in the lead.
• Are all of those 10 external links useful for a further understanding of the article?
• "The leopard is also very agile, and can run over sixty kilometers an hour, leap over six metres and jump up to three metres vertically.[24]" Provide imperial units in parentheses.
• "most leopards avoid humans." Why do they avoid humans?
• There should be more information about leopards in mythology and literature.

--Novil Ariandis (talk) 16:05, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Should that not be 'hunting and loss of habitat due to expansion of human habitat'? Loss of habitat is too amorphous an expression for one because it could, theoretically, be loss of habitat through non-human, natural influences. I think this clarification is important. Let me be an optimist for once, and hope it may wake up a dozen people today and three dozen people tomorrow. 121.209.48.168 (talk) 04:02, 30 January 2009 (UTC)