Leopards are among the most widespread carnivores today, living in a wide range of habitats, from deserts to rainforests, and from the lowland plains to the mountainous highlands.
Over the past century, they’ve experienced extreme habitat losses due to human activity, both directly from hunting and indirectly from habitat reduction and prey competition. This has led to the land they occupy being reduced by over 50% in Africa, and over 80% in Asia, involving the local extinction of many populations.
Genetic analysis of leopards is important to understand their population history, structure and dynamics. Particularly important is the analysis of whole nuclear genomes, which means all the DNA contained in the cell core – approximately 2.5 billion DNA bases (pairs of DNA building blocks).