Five Types of Wild Leopards Found in India

Leopards are the member of the Felidae and very much similar in appearance to the jaguar, And the melanistic are known as black panther. There are four types of Wild Leopards found in India, named as Indian Leopard, Snow Leopard, Clouded Leopard and Black Leopard.

Indian Leopard

Indian leopard is one of five big cats found in India, found in and around around tiger habitats but not so common where tiger density is high. The spotted leopards are listed as Vulnerable, inhabits tropical rainforest to dry area of Indian subcontinent.

Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard is a large wild cat, classified as Vulnerable and mostly occurred in high altitudes of the Himalayas in India.

The gray with black spot leopard habitat in the snow capped Indian Himalayas, Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary in Himachal is one of the best place spot Snow Leopard in India.

Clouded Leopard

Clouded Leopard is the small species of Indian big cats, listed as Vulnerable and found at range of Himalayan foothills in North East India.

The solitary cat is most talented climbers of trees, occurs in Indian states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Manas National Park of Assam is one of the best place to spot Clouded Leopard in India.

Black Leopard/ Black Panther

The melanistic colour variant of Indian Leopard is known as Black Panther, Found in Nagarhole National Park, Tadoba National Park and in Kabini Wildlife Sanctuary.

Black Panther or Black Leopard only reported from some of the dense rain forest areas of southern India, Kabini Sanctuary is best place to spot Black Leopard in India.

Cat Leopard/ Leopard Cat

The leopard cat is actually not a species of big cats but is a small wild cat found in the Indian Subcontinent. They are solitary, carnivorous and differ widely in fur colour, tail length, size depending on habitat and found feeding on a variety of prey.

Leopards Like Wild Animal – Cheetah and Jaguar Not Found in India

Leopard and Jaguar both are part of the wildcat Sanctuary, can have almost same color, pattern and spots but found in totally different continents. The jaguars and leopards are not only different in habitat but also in size, body and behavior.

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) – चीता

Cheetah is the fasted running land animal in the world, capable of running at a speed of 110 km/h on short distances. Asiatic cheetah and African cheetah are the two main types and surviving cheetah in the world, Found on mostly arid habitats like savannahs.

Cheetah Reintroduction in India

Long time back the Cheetah was declared extinct from India, Today India is trying to bring back the Asiatic cheetah or probably African cheetah to some of the potential sites. Cheetah reintroduction sites in India are chossen as the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Jaguar (Panthera onca)

Jaguar is the third largest big cat species found in the world, native to the Americas and found across the variety of habitat but preferred swamp and river forest. The jaguar is an ambush predator and is the largest cat native to the South America along with Cougar.

Cougar is also known as Puma, native to the Americas and known as mountain lion in the United States and Canada. The cougar is an ambush predator and second-heaviest cat of the New Cat World, has largest range of any wild land animal.