ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - D - THE LEOPARD (Panthera pardus)

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Barbary leopards – ie the leopards of North Africa (Morocco, Northern Algeria, and Tunisia)

Leopard in the Meknes zoo, Morocco 1947.

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 As there was some discussion on Barbary leopards a few pages ago on this thread as well as on page 7 of the Sri Lankan leopard thread I wanted to contribute a little to that topic with a summary of all the info I have which some may find helpful.
 
Firstly, Alfred Edward Pease’s account of North African leopards definitely needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Although, the leopards he saw in North Africa may certainly have been bigger than those he saw elsewhere his overall description comes off as overly sensationalized and exaggerated. Also, it should be pointed out that his use of the word panther does not mean he was referring to melanisitic/black leopards as some seem to be thinking. As I stated in an earlier post the word panther was interchangeable with leopard in the 19th century and early 20th century (like cougar, puma and mountain lion). Many early hunters also insisted (as Pease does in that excerpt) that there are 2 distinct varieties of the leopard, one big and more lion like and the other smaller and more cat like. Often early hunters referred to what they considered the big variety as panthers and those which were small as leopards – this had nothing to do with whether they were melanistic or normal phase. With increasing scientific understanding it became better known the difference was simply due to particularly pronounced sexual dimorphism in the species along with geographic variation. Also note that most of North Africa was under French colonial rule and the leopard is called panthere in French. The fact Pease described the leopards of North Africa as “dark panthers” most probably reflects their adaptation to mountain forests of North Africa – according to Pocock African leopards exhibit 4 general colour variations – pale colour in arid areas, a more yellowish/tawny colour in the savanna, a darker dull colour in lowland forests, and lastly a very dark dusky colour in high mountains. Barbary leopards probably varied in colour depending on location, those from the more arid steppe lands closer to the Sahara desert being more light coloured.
 
With that being said, we can look at some more reliable info on the size of these leopards which may be of some interest, although the data is very limited. The best piece of information I have are the measurements of a museum skull from Algeria which is held at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and was part of the dataset used by Van Neer for his 2013 paper, "A leopard in the Predynastic Elite Cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Egypt". This skull measures 245mm in greatest length and 148mm in zygomatic width. It’s not clear whether this specimen was fully mature but regardless these measurements would put it above the average of around 235mm for adult male leopard skulls from places like Kenya or India. For general reference a leopard skull can be considered big at 250mm, huge at 270mm, and exceptional beyond 285mm. So nothing too extraordinary but still above average for the species.
 
The Mammals of Algeria, 1991 by Kowalski, states that a leopard killed in Merad, Algeria in 1918 measured 250cm in total length and weighed over 80kg. These measurements were apparently reported by French zoologist and parasitologist LG Seurat who had dissected and studied this specimen for parasites – so this would be more than just a hunting record. If reliable, I suspect the length was probably measured over curves as opposed to between pegs.
 
Some info on North African leopards is also provided by RI Pocock in his 1932 paper, “The leopards of Africa” and also the Spanish zoologist Angel Cabrera, in his 1932 book, “Los Mamiferos de Marruecos”. Based on information provided by earlier French naturalists, Pocock gives the head and body length of an unsexed Moroccon leopard as 4 feet 4 inches (132cm) with a total length of 7 feet 2 inches and another described as an old male as 4 feet 3 inches (130cm) with a total length of 6 feet 9 inches (described as having a very short tail). Cabrera states an old male was measured at 221cm (7 feet 3 inches) but it’s not clear if he was referring to the same old male as Pocock because they both list the same source (ie Cuvier). Pocock also provides the skull measurements for a captive adult female Algerian leopard as 208mm in greatest length which would be very large for a female leopard. Cabrera reports an additional male leopard skull from Morocco with a basal length of 207mm which would indicate a total length for that skull of around 240-250mm.
 
Interestingly, both Pocock and Cabrera seem to have accepted the North African leopard as being very large, in fact among the very largest. The fact they did so despite not having much first hand data on these leopards is interesting – Pocock especially had studied considerable material on leopards from various other regions and most of his conclusions were based on more conclusive data. I suspect they may have been convinced by the observations of certain naturalists/hunters who had seen these leopards in the field. Cabrera for example quotes the explorer Harry Johnston who had stated in his book: "The leopard still lingers here, in western Algeria and Morocco. Those I have seen, dead or stuffed, in Morocco-Algeria, struck me as being exceptionally large, compared to the two or three varieties seen in India, Malaysia, and tropical Africa. Rosettes are larger, more jaguar like, and some of the males attain the dimensions of a large jaguar ". Unlike Alfred Pease’s account, Harry Johnston’s writing is not sensationalized and he appears to be a more reliable source with a good scientific understanding of natural history and also animal anatomy. He also had firsthand experience with wildlife in different parts of Africa, Asia, as well as South America. Unfortunately, however, he provides no details on measurements of any big cats. (BTW before someone gets carried away that these leopards were equal to the biggest jaguars or conversely someone complains how dare any leopard be compared to big jaguars understand that Johnston probably didn’t have experience with the Pantanal jaguars specifically and he was probably thinking of more typical Amazon jaguars from the coastal areas of South America he would have visited).

Excerpt about North African leopards from Harry Johnston's book, The Story of My Life 1923.

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Apart from the above, some info and a lot of old photos of North African leopards were posted on this Spanish forum: https://www.ellinceiberico.com/foro/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5578. One of the photos from there of a leopard killed in Meknes Morocco in 1968 was already shared on page 9 of this thread – according to the press article it was from, the length of this leopard was reported as 2.25m with a weight of 70kg – judging from the photo this appears believable.
 
Additional weights for North African leopards are provided in this 1957 article from a Spanish hunting magazine, "Caza y Pesca". The caption for the top photograph says the weight was 70kg for that leopard killed in Zale, Morocco in 1957. For the leopard in the bottom photograph killed in Ketama Morocco 1955 the figures given in the caption are more extreme - 95kg and 2.5m long. Of course, measurements from hunters are always suspicious – and although the leopard in the bottom photo appears to be an adult male there’s no way to gauge its size with nothing in the photo for reference.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

 
Regardless of any alleged weights, the best material we have available for these leopards are photographs – thanks to a few interested folk a decent number of photographs of Algerian and Moroccan leopards have been gathered. Around 15 photographs appear to show what are probably adult males and most of them look like good sized leopards. Some, like the following appear to be very large leopards, and IMO add credibility to the idea that these leopards may have been particularly large. My own opinion is that Barbary leopards were probably similar in size and appearance to Persian and/or East African mountain leopards, living in a similarly mountainous habitat and hunting similar prey.
 
Some photos of Barbary leopards seem to show very large specimens:
 
From Morocco, 1930s.

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From Algeria.

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Another one from Morocco.

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As per the status of these leopards. Things don’t look too good and it’s doubtful there are any Barbary leopards left in the wild, or in captivity for that matter. The last evidence of these leopards appears to be from 2007 in Figuig, southern Morocco - described as a “probable observation” in The Mammals of Africa 2013. Apparently the area this was in, at the Morocco/Algeria border, is a restricted military zone and is therefore not accessible for ecological surveys. However, the fact it is restricted may have helped maintain prey populations by preventing poaching – but we can only speculate.
 
The demise of these leopards is really unfortunate and especially disappointing for 2 reasons. First, despite the fact the leopard was clearly present in North Africa much later than the lion it received very little attention compared to the lion. Rather than focusing so much on finding lions with possible Barbary lineage in captivity and trying to breed them, it would’ve made a lot more sense to try and save the few Barbary leopards which were still hanging on in the wild. Secondly, I think the classification of all African leopards into a single subspecies really doomed them in the end. If they had still been recognized as a distinct subspecies they would’ve received more attention as an endangered population as have Amur and Arabian leopards but instead because the African leopard as a whole was not endangered, no one seems to have cared what happened to this leopard population. Of course, the classifications which decided all this were not conclusive and are now being questioned – the unique status of Amur leopards no longer appears to be recognized and recent genetic studies suggest that the difference between different African leopard populations is equal or greater than that between Arabian and Persian leopards.
 
One of the last to be photographed in Morocco, 1955.

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