View allAll Photos Tagged leopard
I also learned something today about these guys - the little rock area he was laying in - heated. He loves to sleep there, and the zoo made sure that the place he loves to sleep is one that is visible to guests.
Four days spent in the heart of the Serengeti were not nearly enough. It is a place of wonder, of delights and of incredible moments shared with spectacular creatures.
Photos were taken during a 9 day safari in partnership with Fed Tours and Safaris (fedsafaris.com) who provided an absolutely incredible experience.
Learn more about the trip on virtualwayfarer.com.
To buy prints of these photos visit alex-berger.com. For licensing requests, please reach out directly.
The leopard is a solitary animal which hunts mainly at night and hides during the day. The Amur leopards, also known as the Far Eastern leopards, are the northern most subspecies of leopard and are well adapted to snowy winters. They inhabit an area to the west of Vladivostok. The Amur leopards prefer mixed forest where there are sufficient numbers of deer, hares, badgers and raccoon dogs that form the bulk of their prey. They often make their dens in caves and bury their prey under fallen leaves. The cubs are born in a den and suckle for three months.
This is from a roll of film that has been in my drawer for over a year... I think this was shot with a Canon EOS Rebel 2000 and most likely the plastic-fantastic EF 50mm f1.8 II lens. From film edge markings I am guessing Fujicolor ISO 200?
Taken in my recent trip to NYC, I visited the Central Park Zoo and had a marvellous day watching all the animals they had there on display! My favorites were the two Snow Leopards, they are just such magestic creatures!
From Wikipedia
The snow leopard (Uncia uncia or Panthera uncia), sometimes known as ounce, is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia. The classification of this species has been subject to change and its exact taxonomic position will not be resolved until further studies are conducted.
Snow leopards live between 3,000 and 5,500 metres (9,800 and 18,000 ft) above sea level in the rocky mountain ranges of Central Asia. However, their secretive nature means that their exact numbers are not known, although it has been estimated that between 3,500 and 7,000 snow leopards exist in the wild and between 600 and 700 in zoos worldwide.
Snow leopards are smaller than the other big cats but like them, exhibit a range of sizes, generally weighing between 27 and 54 kilograms (60 and 120 lb). Body length ranges from 75 to 130 centimetres (30 to 50 in), with a tail of nearly the same length.
Snow leopards have long thick fur, the base colour of which varies from smoky grey to yellowish tan, with whitish underparts. They have dark grey to black open rosettes on their body with small spots of the same colour on their heads and larger spots on their legs and tail.
Snow leopards show several adaptations for living in a cold mountainous environment. Their bodies are stocky, their fur is thick, and their ears are small and rounded, all of which help to minimize heat loss. Their feet are wide, which distributes their weight better for walking on snow, and they have fur on their undersides to increase their traction on steep and unstable surfaces, as well as to assist with minimizing heat loss. Snow leopards' tails are long and flexible, helping them to maintain their balance. The tails are also very thickly covered with fur which, apart from minimizing heat loss, allows them to be used like a blanket to protect their faces when asleep.
Snow leopards cannot roar, despite possessing some ossification of the hyoid bone. The presence of this ossification was previously thought to be essential for allowing the big cats to roar, but new studies show that the ability to roar is due to other morphological features, especially of the larynx, which are absent in the snow leopard.
A Sri Lankan Leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) glares disapprovingly at cameras as it walks past a jeep full of photographers in the Yala National Park, Sri Lanka.
Captured on August 29th 2009 with a Canon EOS 30D (EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III and Kenko 2X Teleplus Pro 300 teleconverter) on aperture priority (f/4.0) and ISO 800, manually focused.
Post-processed to fine-tune color and saturation.