Leopards adapted to South Africa’s Cape so successfully that they’re genetically unique – study

Animals of the same species don’t always look the same. From birds with different beak shapes to mammals that vary in size or colour, populations living in different places can often look very different.

What’s much harder to pin down is why these differences arise. Are they shaped by local environments? Or driven by natural or sexual selection? Or are they simply the result of the random loss of gene variants as populations become isolated and slowly diverge over time?

I’m part of a team of leopard conservationists and researchers who set out to answer some of these questions…

© La Conversation - jeudi 26 février 2026