If you missed our
Kalahari Supercat live chat with wildlife expert Peter Gros, we've got the transcript with your leopard questions answered, right here.
Peter Gros: I look forward to chatting with you again about one of the most widespread carnivores of all the large cats. I've worked with leopard conservation reproduction for 20 years. I think they're some of the most mysterious creatures in the world.
africanlioness: I read that leopards can climb 50 feet up a tree with a kill in their mouth that can weigh much more than his/herself. Which muscles do leopards use to climb with all this excess weight? Are these muscles larger than normal to help them be able to do this?
Peter Gros: Leopards are amazingly powerful animals and have unbelievably strong muscles in their hind legs. They're actually able to carry antelope weighing 160 pounds into a tree, which is quite a feat considering that leopards weigh 50 to 60 pounds. They also have unusually powerful jaw muscles and long, hooked, retractable claws to help them climb trees with their prey.
The muscles in their hind legs are unusually large, yes.
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Peter Gros is a special adviser to Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom on Animal Planet and a former host of the original series. On behalf of Mutual of Omaha, he is involved with a nationwide education program that teaches students about the importance of conservation. As former director of land animals, and later vice president, at Marine World/Africa USA, he established breeding programs for 377 endangered animals. He later developed a rehabilitation program for birds of prey. Peter is an active member of several zoological and environmental education groups, a licensed exhibition and animal educator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and a frequent lecturer on the subject of conservation at universities, zoos and nature centers.
