• Question: what is more athletic: a lion or a leopard?

    Asked by Syvester McCoy to Andrew, Dan, Emilia, Helen, Katy, LauraAnne, Stephanie on 11 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Katy Griggs

      Katy Griggs answered on 11 Nov 2016:

      Although leopards are extremely powerful for their size I would say a lion as they are larger and stronger than leopards. Lions are also faster with a top speed of 50 mph compared to 36 mph for a leopard.

    • Photo: LauraAnne Furlong

      LauraAnne Furlong answered on 12 Nov 2016:

      That’s an interesting one! Lions are much heavier than leopards and have a lot more muscle, so they can generate very high forces. This allows them to accelerate very quickly over a short period of time and reach very high speeds (as Katy said, up to 50 mph), but they can’t maintain this over a long distance.

      However, because they are so heavy, they are not able to climb trees as well as the leopard (but it is not unheard of, some do). Because leopards are smaller and weigh less, they are very agile, can jump up to 10 feet in the air, leap over 20 feet, and spend a lot of time up in trees. They are still fast, with a top speed of 36 mph. They’re also very strong for their size, so can drag their kill up into the trees.

      For those reasons, I’d probably say a leopard, but in a fight between the two, a lion would probably win because it so much heavier and also because its thick mane will protect its neck region from any bites.

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