What subspecies is my leopard?

Eduardo Gonzalez

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hi I was wondering if someone here can tell me what subspecies my leopard is.

Thank you
 

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Neal

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You have a normal leopard.

There are no sub-species of leopards, just different variants. If you live in the USA, we generally accept two types 1) variants originating from South Africa or 2) variants from the eastern portions of Africa within the leopard tortoises' range (aka "Normal leopards"). It's a pretty broad assignment, but it's the best we have to work with.

Leopard taxonomy is a pretty intense topic.
 

Eduardo Gonzalez

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You have a normal leopard.

There are no sub-species of leopards, just different variants. If you live in the USA, we generally accept two types 1) variants originating from South Africa or 2) variants from the eastern portions of Africa within the leopard tortoises' range (aka "Normal leopards"). It's a pretty broad assignment, but it's the best we have to work with.

Leopard taxonomy is a pretty intense topic.



But my question is if this one is pardalis babcocki or pardalis pardalis?
 

Jodie

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If it were PP, you would know it. They are much more expensive and advertised as pure PP.
 

Neal

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I understand, just trying to provide la little insight.

To put it another way: Pardalis Babcocki = normal leopard tortoise. Pardalis Pardalis = South African leopard tortoise.
 

Tom

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hi I was wondering if someone here can tell me what subspecies my leopard is.

Thank you

Around 2010, the scientists who do this sort of thing decided that there were no longer going to be any recognized subspecies of Stigmochelys paradalis. All of the variants are now one species with no subspecies. They recognized 11 "clades" of different leopard variants throughout the huge range of this species, but all 11 variants fall under the same species designation now with no subspecific designation.

As Neal pointed out, over here we have South African leopards, which show some distinct characteristics and people who have them know that what they have is different than than the normal ones, and al the other ones are referred to as "normal" leopards. The normal ones can be a pure variant of one of those aforementioned clades that has been imported over the years, or it can be a mix of two or more of those variants. I think most of them are mixes. Yours looks like a mix to me.
 

Ramsey

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Around 2010, the scientists who do this sort of thing decided that there were no longer going to be any recognized subspecies of Stigmochelys paradalis.

Does anyone happen to know why scientists came to this conclusion? The two variants that seem to be accepted by the keepers community seems like enough distinction to substantiate a subspecies.

Interesting to know the actual reason.
 
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