Journal
MAMMALIAN BIOLOGY
Volume 79, Issue 6, Pages 398-405Publisher
ELSEVIER GMBH
DOI: 10.1016/j.mambio.2014.07.004
Keywords
Panthera pardus; Leopard; Taxonomy; Variation; Conservation
Categories
Funding
- Ernst Mayr Travel Grant in Animal Systematics
- Erasmus Mundus/ALRAKIS postdoctoral scholarship
- Alexander von Humboldt Special Research Fellowship [3.3-ARM/1151598 STP]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Designation of subspecies in wild cats (Carnivora: Felidae) often results from arbitrary description of morphological characters and it can be confounded by geographic variation and sexual dimorphism. To test the contribution of these factors to subspecies grouping, I studied 22 cranial shape variables in 55 skulls of the common leopard (Panthera pardus) from the Middle East and estimated their differences between the three subspecies groups in this region, namely the Persian leopard (P.p. ciscaucasica Satunin, 1914), Anatolian leopard (P.p. tulliana Valenciennes, 1856) and Arabian leopard (P.p. nimr Hemprich et Ehrenberg, 1833), among sexes. Male and female skulls increased in size with latitude (Bergmann's rule) and female skull size also significantly increased with longitude. Results suggest that taxonomic grouping was determined only by female skulls which showed high variation between the groups, unlike male skulls which varied more within the groups. Inter-group variation of female skulls, presence of only four cranial variables which are significantly different between the groups in all skulls, and the lack of historical barriers for subspeciation may suggest the existence of one leopard subspecies in the Middle East. Independent genetic and ecological studies are required to settle this taxonomic issue. This study urges for securing connectivity between the two remnant, taxonomically identical populations in the region, namely in (i) Iran and neighbouring countries and (ii) four Arab countries and Israel, with more research and conservation efforts in these populations and in the Fertile Crescent lying between them. (C) 2014 Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Saugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available