Amur leopards are the most endangered cats among all big
cats. They stand as critically endangered. The amur leopard that we have at the
zoo is a female named Nat, short for Natalia. Nat is a pretty sassy cat. She is
not as friendly as Payson, the white Bengal tiger. It is more common for her to
be more aggressive due to that running in her species so I try not to take it
personally. Sometimes Nat can be fun though. She is very good at stalking.
There was this one time when I was cleaning around her outside display and
while I was not paying as close of attention, she tries to sneak up and pounce
on me. I noticed the people looking at the exhibit look at me. When I turn
around, she is ready to pounce! Only I caught her in the act, she looked
stumped and walked off because she got caught. Since I find Nat to be extremely sassy, this
would explain her behavior. Leopards are very extremely conservative of their
territory. Therefore, she shows aggressive behavior when I am up close to her.
People often confuse leopards as cheetahs and jaguars. However,
if you look at them all closely, there are pretty quite distinct differences
between them. Despite the obvious spots
they all have, leopards have black circles with their orange color in the
center. Jaguars have dots within their black circles. Leopards also have a
thicker and fluffy fur due to living in colder habitats in north eastern Asia. This
is the only cat species to be adapted to a cold, snowy climate. Cheetahs and
jaguars have a finer coat since cheetahs live in the Sahara desert and jaguars
live in tropical jungles. Jaguars tend to be more bulky as cheetahs are very
sleek for their athletic lifestyle.
Natalia
No comments:
Post a Comment