ttps:////»https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd»>
These two animals, belonging to the Felidae family and the Panthera genus, tend to confuse people because their bodies are covered with an orange coat tinged with black spots. But, looking closely, it is possible to notice some differences in the design of the fur of each one and also in the size. Also, they inhabit different places. The jaguar (Panthera onca), also known as the jaguar, is the largest feline in the Americas, while the leopard (Panthera pardus) can be found in virtually all of Africa and much of the Asian continent. “It is one of the felines with the widest geographical distribution on the planet”, says biologist Mara Marques, from the Zoological Park Foundation of São Paulo. In Asia, the leopard is better known as the panther. The black panther, by the way, is a leopard with an all-black coat.
This uniform coloring is caused by an excess of melanin – a black pigment found in various regions of the body, such as the skin and hair. Differences aside, the jaguar and the leopard have a lot in common. “Both are solitary animals, excellent predators, are nocturnal and are very agile at climbing trees”, says Mara.
Small details in the fur designs, tail and weight distinguish one beast from another.
Leopard
The pints deliver…
The main way to distinguish the jaguar from the leopard is by looking at the spots on both animals. The jaguar has rosette-shaped spots (1) , with circles surrounding black dots. The leopard, on the other hand, only has spots in the shape of a circle (2), without the central spots.
…and the tails too
In length, the leopard is smaller, measuring, on average, 1.50 meters against 1.80 meters for the jaguar. But with the tail, the opposite happens. The jaguar has a smaller tail (3), about 70 centimeters. The leopard’s tail is, on average, 30 centimeters longer (4)
Ounce
light and heavy weight
The few centimeters that separate the lengths of the two animals create a big difference in size: the jaguar is much stronger (5), weighing between 100 and 160 kilos, while the leopard, more slender (6), weighs between 50 and 90 kilos.