While they share the name ‘leopard’, Amur and clouded leopards have many differences from where they live to the type of animal they are.
Both leopards are adapted to survive in their habitats: the Amur leopard lives in mountains and the clouded leopard calls the jungle home. The hairs of the Amur leopard’s winter coat can be 7 cm long. Meanwhile, the clouded leopard has flexible ankle joints allowing the back paws to rotate and the leopard to climb down trees head first. Wrapping it around themselves to keep warm, Amur leopards have 82-90 cm long tails. The clouded leopard’s measures 65 cm and is used for balance.
Their conservation status is also different: the Amur leopard is the most critically endangered big cat, while the clouded leopard is listed as vulnerable. Both are a victim of habitat loss and deforestation.
The biggest difference has to be their classification. Amur leopards are scientifically known as Panthera (genus, big cat) pardus (species, leopard) orientalis (subspecies, amur). The scientific name of clouded leopards is Neofelis (genus, new cat) nebulosa (species, cloud). This means that the clouded leopard isn’t a type of leopard or big cat! The reason for this is that the clouded leopard has a hyoid bone allowing it to purr like a small cat but not roar like a big cat.
