Animal Central: More On Leopards

Today, read a cool book on leopards.

Leopards
Got a couple of interesting facts. First, let's cover some animal relationships. It turns out that Momma keeps an eye on her kids using the scent and markings techniques. The next animal relationships cover the prey/predator area... lions hunt leopards, even chasing the cats up trees and yanking them down from trees!
But here's something wild... Baboons are sometimes on the leopards' lunch list. But a bunch of baboons can rip a leopard to shreds! So, usually, leopards usually take a powder and try to avoid the baboons. Leopards usually ignore each other, unless mating time and raising cubs.
Here's some technical facts. Leopards have unique spots in certain places... on either side of their nose on their lip, for example, with whiskers growing out of them! The pattern is unique per cat. The same is for the spots around their neck (these spots are called a "necklace"). Scientists use these, and the spots on the sides of the body, for identifying the cats.
A leopard's roar sounds like a cough. It's deep and raspy, but it's a cough. Their roaring helps them keep their territory by telling other leopards, "Hey! I'm here! Stay away!" They, of course, do all the other ways of marking their territory too (peeing on stuff, making marks). Speaking of territories, turns out that cubs stick around Momma's territory for a bit after they're grown.
Oh, and apparently trees with holes are a good spot for a Momma-and-cub pair (one in the book was a sausage tree).
Here's an interesting tibbit--a leopard's eyes change color! As cubs, they're one thing ("steel gray" is how the book describes them), and then turn into the golden-like color we know later (the book uses "amber" and "honey" to describe them). And, no, they do not change their spots!
The book also says that leopards have to be playful. A leopard was once spotted chasing a squiriell (sp?) for an hour! The book says that the leopard must have enjoyed the chase, because the reward wasn't worth all that effort. I would have to agree with that reasoning... plus, it's just plain cool.
Oh, and apparently leopards are usually shy, despite the people killings it's been known to make sometimes. Not always... but that's the usual case.