•Leopard

“”””””’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’

nitin Sharma

leopard

Leopardkingdom: animalia

phylum: chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: carnivora

Family: felidae

LEOPARD

• SCIENTIFIC NAME: Panthera Pardus• COMMON NAME: snow leopard

Geographical range• Africa, Asia, middle East

HABITAT & TYPE OF SYSTEM

• The geographical distribution of Panthera pardus extends from the whole of the African continent south of the Sahara and along the North African coast, to the Arabian Peninsula, to the Middle East, to South and South-East Asia up to the Amur Valley in the Russian Far East. Leopards inhabit semi-deserts and savannahs, but also live in coniferous forests in moderate regions, subtropical deciduous forests and grasslands as well as in tropical rainforests, with the exception of Sumatra and Borneo.

populationRange State Habitat Area (km2)

Estimated Population

Afghanistan 50,000 100-200Bhutan 15,000 100-200China 1,100,000 2,000-5,000India 75,000 200-600

Kazakhstan 50,000 180-200Kyrgyz

Republic105,000 150-500

Mongolia 101,000 500-1,000Nepal 30,000 300-500

Pakistan 80,000 200-420Tajikistan 100,000 180-220

Uzbekistan 10,000 20-50

Population trend

•Decreasing day by day

Countries where they are found

• Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Congo, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Iran, Islamic Republic of, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Liberia, Malawi, Malaysia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Threatened of leopard

The main threat to the snow leopard's survival comes from human activities ;• Poaching• Retribution killings and conflict with herders• Habitat and prey loss• Lack of awareness, policy, and implementation

poaching

• Leopards are hunted illegally for their pelts,

which are sought after especially in Central Asia,

Eastern Europe, and Russia for coats and other garments.

• Snow leopard bones and other body parts are also in demand for use in traditional Asian medicine.

• Finally, live cats are sometimes captured from the wild for private animal collections in Central Asia.

• Many of the poachers are local people from snow leopard areas, who often live on just a few dollars a day. For them, poaching may be a lucrative source of extra income to help them feed their familie

Retribution killings and conflict with herders

• Snow leopards sometimes prey on domestic livestock. Herders in snow leopard areas lead precarious economic lives, and their wealth is almost entirely tied up in their herds.

• The loss of even a single sheep or goat represents a real economic hardship. Herders often retaliate for these losses by trapping, poisoning, or shooting snow leopards.

Habitat and prey loss

• As humans push ever further into mountainous areas with their livestock, the snow leopard's habitat is degraded and fragmented.

• Overgrazing damages the fragile mountain grasslands, leaving less food for the wild sheep and goats that are the snow leopard's main prey.

• Legal and illegal hunting for meat and trophies is also depleting prey populations.

• This situation also increases conflict with local people, because snow leopards are more likely to kill domestic livestock when their natural prey is scarce.

Lack of awareness, policy, and implementation

• Effective conservation programs depend on the support of local people in snow leopard areas, but many herders are struggling to provide for their families and have little extra time and energy to devote to protecting other species.

• Similarly, many snow leopard range country governments are focused on economic development and providing basic services to their citizens, and it is difficult for them to make environmental protection a policy priority.

• Political instability, the lack of money to enforce laws and protected area boundaries, and the difficulty of catching poachers in the snow leopard's remote and rugged habitat all make effective protection for the cat more difficult to secure.

What phylum

• The leopard are found in phylum: chordata.

Food web

food webThe “Food Chain” game is created by dividing the players into various categories – herbivores (primary consumers), omnivores (secondary consumers), and carnivores (tertiary consumers). Each category is given a certain number of lives: 9 lives for herbivores, 6 lives of omnivores, and 3 lives for carnivores.

consequences

There are very less leopard are found over Asia and Africa. Some of

get hunted and some died naturally. The leopard has a thick, beautiful

grey to yellowish-grey coated with large black rosettes. A few leopards

are remaining on this earth. Their population is decreasing day by

day. Hunting for its beautiful coat is just one of the reasons this cat

has become an endangered species in this universe. In Asia, leopards

are found in very low range as they are being hunted by the hunters.

Personal response

Biodiversity is the variation of life forms. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems.it found millions of distinct biological species, which is the product of nearly 3.5 billion years of evolution. Biodiversity is a contraction of biological diversity. Biodiversity reflects the number, variety and variability of living organisms. Biodiversity includes many species like animals, plants and humans. It’s a study of all living things. Each organism plays a niche role in an ecosystem. If we maintain and tend to our earth, then it will give us good result. Protected areas are an extremely important part of programs to conserve biodiversity.

biodibersityBiodiversity is very important. Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, or big all have an important role to play. A healthy biodiversity provides a number of natural services for everyone like;

Ecosystem services, such as• Protection of water resources• Soils formation and protection

Biological resources, such as• Wood products• Food

Social benefits, such as• Cultural values Recreation and tourism

Bibliography

• http://www.globalissues.org/article/170/why-is-biodiversity-important-who-cares#WhyisBiodiversityImportant

• http://earthsendangered.com/profile.asp?gr=M&sp=62• http://www.ciel.org/Biodiversity/WhatIsBiodiversity• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne