You CAN Tell a Cat by It's Spots!

You might look at this gorgeous guy, see his spots and think "leopard", but indeed, this is a jaguar.

So how can you tell the difference?  While both are from Africa, the leopard is from the plains and the jaguar is native to the South. The jaguar has shorter, thicker legs than a leopard, but for me it's all in the spots. Jags have a kind of rosette pattern to their spots, which you can see clearly on the photo above (it's a little cloudy as I was shooting through thick pelxi-glass). There are black "petals" around a tan colored spot and inside also are black spots, like the center of a flower. If you look below, you'll see that leopards fur just has black circles with varying colors of tan fur filling the center. Both are striking, aren't they?

Photo credit for leopard print above by jeniflower from virtualtourist.com

This little-of-the-big cat below is an Ocelot. At just about twice as large of a domestic house cat it's easy to forget you can't just cuddle her. She's wild as can be and can still give you a good swat or bite. But she has leopard-like spots. Notice that they are elongated along her trunk though, and a leopards' would not be.


This handsome fellow here is indeed a leopard, but not the kind we were thinking about. he's a clouded leopard, and they are gorgeous. You can see from it's wide, diffused, cloud-shaped spots where they got the name.

Purrrrdy kitty.