I’m sure that we have made this mistake once in our life while differentiating between a cheetah and a leopard. Even if they both are big wild cats, they still have a lot of differences between them. So, in this blog post, we will be giving a brief explanation of cheetahs and leopards and we will be giving all the key differences between them.
Brief Cheetah overview
Size: A Cheetah can gain a height up to 0.9 meters and can weigh up to 70kgs.
Speed: Cheetahs can run at a speed of over 90 km/h making them the fastest land animals in the world.
Diet and Habitat: Cheetahs hunt small and even medium-sized mammals such as hares, impalas, and gazelles even on their own. Cheetahs can be found in Eastern and Southern Africa in very small habitats of dry forests and grasslands.
Brief Leopard overview
Size: A Leopard can gain a height of 1 meter and most leopards can weigh up to 100 kgs.
Speed: Leopards can run at a speed of 55 to 56 kilometers per hour.
Diet and Habitat: Leopards are carnivores and they hunt a wide variety of prey such as monkeys, jackals, gazelles, eland, wildebeest, and more. Deserts, rainforests, mountain scrubs, and grasslands are the places where you can find leopards. These animals can live in almost any habitat.
Major differences between Cheetah and leopard
Size and Body shape differences
Cheetahs are taller than leopards in the shoulder, they stand higher above the ground but they are more slim animals. Weighing up to 72 kilograms, much of their muscle is sacrificed in making them streamlined and fast animals. Cheetahs have the title of the fastest animals in the world. Their aerodynamic build is made up of long bodies with a flexible spine to allow them to rapidly change directions. Cheetahs have a high chest with wide-open shoulder blades.
Leopards are the shortest of the big cats and they are bulkier than cheetahs weighing up to 100 kilograms. Leopards are more muscular than cheetahs in terms of hunting their prey, they carry their kill-up trees to protect their meal. The difference in the strength of these two animals means that a leopard will chase away any cheetah that approaches its territory.
Coat Difference between Cheetah and Leopard
The coat pattern of these animals certainly has only one obvious difference. At first impression, it can look like both cats have black spots on yellow fur but looking closely you’ll see: –
- Leopards have much smaller, irregularly shaped spots grouped together which form like “rosettes”.
- Cheetahs have oval-shaped spots which are clearly separated from the other spots on their body.
These spots help these species to camouflage themselves in the wild which allows them to hunt their prey easily.
Difference between Cheetah and leopard facial markings
If you observe closely, one of the main differences between cheetahs and leopards are the markings on their face.
While a leopard’s face is covered in a rosette pattern, the Cheetah is immediately identified by the black tear line that runs from the inner corner of its eyes towards the side of its mouth. These tear lines help absorb sunlight while hunting. One other difference is the eye color of both animals. Cheetahs have amber eyes while leopards can have any color between bright blue to bright green.
Tail shape
A Cheetah’s tail is flat and wide in appearance and it helps the animal to change direction quickly by maintaining the counterbalance of the body. A Cheetah’s tail is very helpful in hunting. Whereas, leopards have a tail of tubular shape which helps them to maintain balance while walking or climbing on trees.
Feet and Claws
Leopards have larger front feet than back feet. Larger front feet help its large muscular body to climb the trees easily because all the force a leopard needs to climb a tree is in its front foot. All the cats have retractable claws, Leopards also have retractable claws and they use them while fighting or punching prey.
On the other hand, Cheetahs have large back feet which allows them to run at an explosive speed. Large back feet help a cheetah attain massive acceleration and high-speed turns. Cheetahs have semi-retractable claws which give them extra traction control while running at a high speed.
Habitat
Although both the cats can be found in overlapping landscapes because of different hunting behaviors, Cheetahs and leopards can be found in fairly different habitats.
Cheetah needs large open spaces to safely complete a hunt at top speed. Large landscapes and savannas are the places to find leopards. Leopard prefers dense areas such as forests, woodlands, scrubs, etc. to stalk their prey and hunt. Leopards find trees helpful to hide and sleep at night before heading out to hunt for a meal. And leopards also take their kill up to trees where they can eat their meal freely without the tension of lions and hyenas.
You can find cheetahs in spots like fallen trees or in spots that are off the ground while scanning for their meal. They are not comfortable in the trees like leopards and are not strong enough to pick the kill up the tree.
Summary
Cheetahs and leopards seem similar but they have many differences between them. In this blog post, we have discussed all the major differences between cheetahs and leopards from their facial markings to tail shapes to their feet and claws. Rosette patterns cover the face of the leopard while a tear line runs from the eye to the mouth of the Cheetah. Rosette patterns in irregular shapes cover the body of the Leopard whereas Cheetah’s body has oval-shaped spots entirely separated from other spots. Cheetahs are the fastest animals in the world whereas leopards can also run up to 55 to 56 kilometers per hour.
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