Athreya, V., Belsare, A. (2007). Human – Leopard Conflict Management Guidelines. Kaati Trust, Pune, India. There was a small population in Israel's Negev desert, estimated at 20 individuals in the late 1970s. [21] Leopards were hunted until the early 1960s. By 2002, fewer than 11 isolated individuals were estimated to survive. Six males, three females and two unsexed individuals were identified in the country, based on genetic analysis of 268 scats collected. About five individuals were thought to survive in the Judaean Desert as of 2005. [22] The last wild leopard in the Negev desert was sighted near Sde Boker in 2007, which was in a poor and weak shape; and the last leopard in the northern Arabah Valley was sighted in 2010–11. [23] Fossil remains of leopard cats were excavated at Neolithic villages in Central China in 2001. Radiometric dating of these bones showed that they are at least 5,000 years old. These findings indicate that the leopard cat was a human commensal or domesticated in Neolithic China. They were later replaced with domestic cats that originated in the Middle East, some time before the Tang dynasty. [39]

The leopard cat is the most widely distributed Asian small wild cat. Its range extends from the Amur region in the Russian Far East over the Korean Peninsula, China, Indochina, the Indian Subcontinent to northern Pakistan. It lives in tropical evergreen rainforests and plantations at sea level, in subtropical deciduous and coniferous forests in the foothills of the Himalayas at elevations above 1,000m (3,300ft). [5] It is able to tolerate human-modified landscapes with vegetation cover to some degree, and inhabits agriculturally used areas such as oil palm and sugar cane plantations. [5] [23]

Taxonomy

Leopard cubs are only 17 to 21 ounces at birth. You could fit a newborn baby leopard in the palm of your hand. Although leopards grow to be much larger than housecats, they are the smallest members of the large cats. Anderson, D.; Grove, A. (1989). Conservation of Africa: People, Politics and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press. a b c d Li, G.; Davis, B. W.; Eizirik, E. & Murphy, W. J. (2016). "Phylogenomic evidence for ancient hybridization in the genomes of living cats (Felidae)". Genome Research. 26 (1): 1–11. doi: 10.1101/gr.186668.114. PMC 4691742. PMID 26518481. a b Werdelin, L.; Yamaguchi, N.; Johnson, W. E. & O'Brien, S. J. (2010). "Phylogeny and evolution of cats (Felidae)". In Macdonald, D. W. & Loveridge, A. J. (eds.). Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp.59–82. ISBN 978-0-19-923445-5. Archived from the original on 2018-09-25 . Retrieved 2020-04-30.

Menon, V. (2014). Indian Mammals: A Field Guide. Gurgaon, India: Hachette India. ISBN 978-93-5009-761-8.

South Arabian Leopard, Panthera pardus nimir, is also native to the Arabian Peninsula and is also critically endangered. It is the smallest member of the leopard family and adapted to life in the desert.