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| The leopard
has the widest distribution of any of the big cats. It is found throughout most
of Africa; in parts of the Middle East; and in Asia, from Siberia in the north
to Sri Lanka and Malaysia in the south, and on into the Far East. Despite this
huge geographical range, leopards have become increasingly rare everywhere. Not
so long ago there were hundreds of thousands of them, but today the fur trade
(taking as many as 60,000 skins a year in the 1960s) and widespread poisoning
by local farmers, has reduced their numbers drastically. In |
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| the 1970s alone, their
populations sank by as much as 90 percent in many regions. In some areas, such
as Sri Lanka, where there are now only a few hundred left, they are rapidly heading
for extinction. Tourists on safari in "Leopard Country" in Africa count
themselves lucky if they have seen a single specimen by the end of their visit. |
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