Leopard broad diet, and strength (which it uses to move heavy carcasses into trees), as well as its ability to adapt to various habitats ranging from rainforest to steppe, including arid and montane areas, and its ability to run at speeds of up to . Fossil parts dating to the Late Pleistocene were excavated in Europe and Japan. The common name "leopard" () is a Greek compound of "leōn" ("lion") and "pardos" ("male panther"). The name reflects the fact that in antiquity, a leopard was believed to be a hybrid of a lion and a panther. The Greek word is related
Indochinese leopard are predominantly spotted. South of the Isthmus, only melanistic leopards were present. Melanism is quite common in dense tropical forest habitat, and black leopards have a selective advantage for ambush. The Indochinese leopard is distributed in Southeast Asia, where today small populations remain only in Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and southern China. In Laos, Viet Nam and Singapore it is suspected to have been extirpated. Peninsular Malaysia and the Northern Tenasserim Forest Complex on Thailand-Myanmar border are at present considered strongholds, and eastern Cambodia a priority site. In Myanmar's Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary, the leopard population declined so drastically between the