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Blonde Girl Wearing Leopard Swimsuit In The Construction Area
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Subspecies
Since Carl Linnaeus published his description of leopards in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758, as many as 27 leopard subspecies were subsequently described by naturalists from 1794 to 1956. In 1996, according to DNA analysis carried out in the 1990s, only eight subspecies are considered valid. Later analysis revealed a ninth valid subspecies, the Arabian leopard (P. p. nimr). Because of limited sampling of African leopards, this number might be an underestimation.
The nine subspecies recognised by IUCN are:
• African leopard (P. p. pardus), (Linnaeus, 1758) — inhabits sub-Saharan Africa;
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