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There is no bigger threat to leopards than human beings. Human actions have put some leopard subspecies in danger.
When leopards have difficulty finding their natural food because of habitat loss or deterioration, they may prey on livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, and dogs instead. Sometimes, leopards that are old or injured will also target livestock because it is easier for them to kill livestock than wild animals. If that happens, farmers and villagers often shoot the leopards. Leopards often feed on remains of animals they did not kill. Farmers also put poison on dead animals to kill leopards.
Leopards are the victims of their own beautiful spotted fur. For many years, leopard skins have been favored at fashion markets and sold at very high prices. During a leopard-skin fashion craze in the 1960s, as many as 30,000 leopards were killed every year in Africa alone. The leopard populations in Kenya, Ethiopia, Namibia, and Zimbabwe were reduced by 90 percent during the 1960s and earlier 1970s.
Leopards are stealthy and secretive animals, people also kill leopards purely for adventure sport. It is more challenge and exciting to hunt leopards than other wild cats such as tigers and lions. Some opportunistic companies or individuals even organize leopard hunting trips to Africa. Some rich people or hunting enthusiasts around the world are willing to pay a large amount of money to take such kind of trips. Some of the hunting is legal, but some is not.
Leopard Kill
