Leopard by Monique Bijl - van der Heijden

About "Leopard"

by Monique Bijl - van der Heijden

About the artwork

On holiday in Tanzania 2023. Great to be able to photograph this beautiful animal in its own habitat.

The leopard is not a group animal, but lives solitary. They only seek each other out during the mating season. The leopard has a fixed territory, which it defends against conspecifics. This is marked with urine or faeces, as in many other animal species. Scratch marks are also left on trees. Males often have larger territories than females. Territories frequently overlap with the territories of animals of a different sex; animals of the same sex avoid each other. When there are places with lots of prey, territories are smaller; territories are larger with less game.

ls the female is ready to mate, her urine has a special smell that male leopards find attractive. After mating, males do not otherwise interfere with the female or the young. The gestation period is 90 to 112 days. The young give birth in a well-hidden hiding place, such as a cave, dense thicket or underground burrow, where they remain hidden for the first six weeks. The young weigh 430 grams to 530 grams at birth and are then still helpless and small. The eyes open after a week. The litter can consist of up to six young, but usually only two survive. The young are suckled for three months and stay with their mother for about one and a half to two years. After that, they are sexually mature and independent. Only after three or four years are they fully mature. The leopard can live up to 20 years.