Origins, Trees and Ranges: teacher key

Leopards, grade 11 edition, written for 11th grade. Read what a genome study says about when leopards came out of Africa, how a leopard climbs and why it hoists its food into a tree. Then see how black coats are inherited, where leopards live and how their cubs begin.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. When did the 2021 genome study find a single founding migration of leopards to Asia?
   • 50 years ago
   • 13 years ago
   • 500,000 to 600,000 years ago (answer)
2. Which kind of trait is the black coat of the black panther in leopards?
   • A spot pattern
   • An autosomal recessive trait (answer)
   • A kind of call
3. Panthera reports leopards were more likely to hoist their prey when what was present?
   • Rain
   • Fruit
   • Hyenas (answer)
4. The Sabi Sand study found leopards hoisted just over 50 percent of prey. What does that say about the rest?
   • It was all hoisted
   • Not all prey was hoisted (answer)
   • None was counted
5. What does melanism mean?
   • A kind of range
   • A darkening of the background coloration (answer)
   • A rough call

Words

• genome: all its genes
• Melanism: dark coloring
• recessive: hidden unless paired
• hoisted: lifted up
• Pliocene: ancient time