North African Leopard information

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North African Leopard

The North African Leopard may grow up to 8' feet long and weigh as much as 210 pounds! To keep itself fed, this nocturnal hunter may capture and dine on animals as large as a Wildebeest (which is 4-5' tall at the shoulders and may weigh up to 600 pounds!). In fact, the Leopard can carry an animal up a tree that weighs three times its weight. That is one hungry cat!

There are many variations of the swift Leopard. There are also many species that are falsely called Leopards, such as the Snow Leopard, the Clouded Leopard, the Jaguar and the Cheetah. One animal that really is a Leopard but is not called a Leopard is the Blank Panther. The well known Blank Panther is a Leopard with a melanistic gene that causes the animal to have black fur.

This large cat lives in Africa and southwest Asia in wooded areas and lowland forests. However, it is classified by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species* as "Critically Endangered" with an "extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future…" and has a "…population estimated to number less than 250 mature individuals". **

Our throws and pillow cover replicate the rich browns and cinnamon colors modeled by the North African leopard.

*International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
**Cat Specialist Group 1996. Panthera pardus ssp. panthera. In: IUCN 2003. 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved on September 23, 2004 from www.redlist.org.