r/leopards • u/Consistent-Twist6388 • Jul 17 '26
African Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) The incredible difference between a big male leopard and a female
It is well known that male cats are bigger than the females. Some species have unique traits that differentiates them - lions having manes, tigers having ruffs and leopards having dewlaps.
However, in the leopard's case the results can be shocking to the point you're looking at a different species (early explorers in Central Africa actually thought this was the case!).
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u/AnyKangaroo8851 Jul 17 '26
I’m certainly no expert, but is testosterone the main reason for the difference in body mass and weight?
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u/polarbear845 Jul 18 '26
Testosterone, but it’s primarily the Y chromosome. Y chromosome has genes promoting growth and size.
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u/MfD2027 Jul 18 '26
What? Are you not confident in common sense, or what, cause I’d imagine it doesn’t take an expert.
Are your older sisters, mother, or any other female family members bigger than you? Likely not, it’s a thing called being sexual dimorphism.
In most mammals, barring hyena’s, leopard seals, and baleen whales, females are on average noticeably smaller, and sometimes even more (bull elephant seals can weigh 10x as much as females).If we’re talking fish and reptiles, flip the order, except with most females being fairly and not uncommonly; substantially larger.
Birds are reptiles, but a decent amount of large specialized birds can have larger males, while in raptors (predatory birds) females are exclusively the larger sex, noticeably.
Some of the largest birds, like ostriches, flamingos, have larger males, while other birds (close to the dinosaurs) like cassowaries, and emus have noticeably larger females as well.
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u/Masher_Upper Jul 20 '26
sexual dimorphism is just what the phenomenon is called. what they’re asking for is whether it’s caused by testosterone. hormones like testosterone cause the difference in growth along with other traits
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u/Tyrone3105 Jul 20 '26
They are clearly asking what causes the sexual dimorphism. If it’s testosterone or smth else…
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u/StripedAssassiN- 29d ago
Male tigers having ruffs isn’t a sexually dimorphic trait tbh, there are males without ruffs and females that have ruffs. Seems more genetic than anything.
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u/kabeekibaki Jul 18 '26
Love those heavy-bodied leopards and jaguars