Community Magazine June 2014

SIVAN 5774 JUNE 2014 85 What’s For Supper? Leopards are carnivores, meaning they eat other animals. They are sly and resourceful hunters and have a very diversified diet. They will eat any meat item they can find, including monkeys, baboons, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, fish, antelope, cheetah cubs, and porcupines. They also like to eat birds and insects. In Africa, mid-sized antelopes provide a majority of their prey, especially impala and Thomson’s gazelles. Both lions and hyenas will take away a leopard’s kill if they can. To prevent this, leopards store their larger kills in trees where they can feed on them in relative safety. Unique Traits The most secretive and elusive of the large carnivores, the leopard is also the shrewdest. Admired for its distinctive beautiful fur, the leopard is cunning, alert, fearless, and bold. The leopard has extraordinary attack weapons. It is a very agile climber and is the most accomplished stalker of all the big cats. Unlike other cats, leopards are strong swimmers and are one of the few cats that like water. They are great athletes, able to run in bursts up to 36 mph, leap twenty feet forward in a single bound, and jump ten feet into the air! The leopard also has excellent hearing and eyesight, and is able to detect the slightest movement from half a mile away. When it moves, its heavily cushioned feet make it seem as though it is gliding rather than walking. The leopard is believed to be more intelligent than other big cats and often employs all sorts of clever tricks to get its prey. ABritish hunter watched a leopard prepare for its stalk of a buffalo calf by first rolling in buffalo dung in order to disguise its body scent. This way, it could get closer to the calf without frightening it. Another hunter related how the leopard took a camel by arousing its curiosity. The leopard rolled on the ground, twisting and turning until it got closer to the camel. When the camel lowered its head to examine the strange animal, the leopard seized the camel and killed it immediately. Master of Disguise The leopard is a master of camouflage. It is extremely stealthy and is well known for its ability to go undetected. Its coat of yellow with black spots is the perfect colors for hiding in the shadows of a forest, and it blends in so much with the leopard’s surroundings that even the trained eye of an experienced hunter cannot easily detect the big cat’s presence. This ability to be camouflaged helps the leopard hide from its prey. Did You Know? Each leopard’s spots are unique, similar to human fingerprints. Leopards have several extra-long hairs in the eyebrows to help protect the eyes and assist them in moving through vegetation in darkness. The leopard’s whiskers, as with all cats, have specialized sensory hair that register minute changes. This enables the leopard to avoid objects in the dark. The white spots on the tip of their tails and back of their ears help leopards locate and communicate with each other in tall grass. King Nimrod was a great-grandson of Noah. He subdued a leopard, which then accompanied him on his hunts. According to some, the word “Nimrod” is Babylonian for “leopard-tamer.” Leopards will swim to capture and eat crabs. The spots on the leopard’s hide start out as merged dots, separating and becoming distinct as the leopard grows older. Q : How does a leopard change its spots? A : When it gets tired of one spot it just moves to another. Excerpts from ‘Exploring the Wild World of Animals , by Efraim Harari, published by Israel Bookshop Publications. This book and Volume 2 of this series, ‘Exploring the Wet & Wild Underwater World’ , are available online and at all Judaica stores.