Leopards fall to the ground after jumping to catch baby monkeys

Dramatic footage captures a leopard's reckless leap from tree to tree, then tumbling to the ground.

Leopards are species with superior climbing skills, and this is proven when they are the "fierce gods" of arboreal animals such as monkeys, apes.

In a dramatic clip recorded at the Panna Tiger Reserve, located in the heart of the Madhya Pradesh jungle in India, a leopard can be seen showing no hesitation when it comes to hunting by jumping over tree tops.

According to the person who recorded the clip, the leopard was stalking a baby monkey at the top of a nearby tree. Before launching the jump, it sat for several minutes on a branch and watched its prey intently.

When performing the jump, things did not seem to go as expected of the leopard, when it suddenly missed the tree top, lost its balance and fell to the ground from a height of nearly 30 meters.

At first glance it looks like the leopard was defeated and left empty-handed. But on closer inspection, a monkey can be seen lying motionless on its mouth. As it turned out, the leopard didn't miss its target, and quickly took down its prey in a split second.

Leopards are one of the most successful predators thanks to their superior adaptability.

Leopards fall down after jumping "passing branches" to catch baby monkeys

Leopard (Panthera pardus) - or English name "leopard", is one of five species of big cats of the genus Panthera living in Africa and Asia. They are from 1 to nearly 2 meters long, weighing from 30 to 90 kg. Females are typically about two-thirds the size of males.

Leopards have the largest distribution of all wild cats, occurring widely in Africa as well as eastern and southern Asia, although populations have shown a decreasing trend, and fragmented outside Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the wild, although they are powerful predators, they often have to compete for food and shelter with other predators such as tigers, lions, cheetahs, spotted hyenas, hyenas and even Even African wild dogs. These animals can steal leopard prey, kill their young or even kill adult leopards.

Accordingly, leopards survive by hunting different types of prey and trying to avoid areas frequented by large carnivores. Leopards can also actively retreat up trees in the face of direct attack from other large carnivores, but on the other hand, they can also kill or prey on competitors.

They also have a special ability to adapt to the environment, but are mainly associated with savanna grasslands and tropical forests. Leopard populations typically thrive anywhere within the species range where grasslands, woodlands, and riparian forests are mostly undisturbed.

In the Russian Far East, they live in temperate coniferous forests where winter temperatures drop as low as -25 ⁰C (-13 ⁰F). They are also well adapted to some of the world's wettest rainforests and even the margins of semi-arid deserts.