Leopards are host to many common felid parasites, including lung flukes, flat worms, spirurian nematodes, hookworms, lung worms, intestinal and hepatic parasites, and parasitic protozoa.
Many of the leopard's predator characteristics also serve as defense mechanisms, such as its spots that allow it to travel inconspicuously and avoid detection.
After capturing its prey, a leopard will break its neck causing paralysis and asphyxiation, then carries the carcass to a nearby tree or caches it in leaves and soil.
Humans are the primary predators of leopards, capturing them for the pet trade and hunting them for trophies, fur, skin, traditional medicine, and retaliation.
Leopards are widely distributed across Africa and Asia, but populations have become reduced and isolated, and they are now extirpated from large portions of their historic range.
Leopards inhabit a variety of terrain including forest, savanna, shrubland, grassland, rocky areas, and deserts and are most comfortable in lower forest canopy.
There are conflicting results on the leopard's taxonomy, but as of 2017, the IUCN SSC Cat Classifaction Task Force of the Cat Specialist Group recognizes 8 subspecies.