Leopard vs cheetah
Both are spotted African cats, and on a grainy camera-trap photo they can look almost the same. A few field marks settle it every time.
Quick tip: Look at the spots first. Rings mean leopard, single dots mean cheetah.
Five field marks
| Field mark | Leopard | Cheetah |
|---|---|---|
| Coat | Rosettes: broken rings of black around a golden centre. | Solid, round black spots, scattered evenly. |
| Face | Broad head with no facial lines. | Small head with a black "tear line" from each eye to the mouth. |
| Build | Stocky and muscular, with shorter, powerful legs. | Slim and long-legged, with a deep chest. Built for speed. |
| Tail | Long and spotted, often curled up at the tip. | Ends in dark rings and usually a white tip. |
| Habits | Mostly active at night. Climbs trees and stores kills in them. | Hunts by day on open ground, using bursts of speed. |
Five real camera-trap photos. Can you tell them apart?
Why it matters
Both cats are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Cheetahs now survive in only a small part of their former range, and leopards are declining across much of Africa. Camera traps are one of the main ways researchers count them.
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Photos: Snapshot Safari via LILA BC, CDLA-Permissive-1.0. We cropped camera banners, resized the images and removed their metadata. Field marks written by Save the Animals. Red List status from the IUCN.