Leopards
are so named because they were once thought not to be a separate species
but a cross between the lion (leo) and the pard, a Tibetan wildcat or
panther. Like the creature’s name, the saying a leopard doesn’t change its
spots goes back to ancient times. It is an allusion to the pessimistic
rhetorical question found in Jeremiah 13:23: “Can the Ethiopian change his
skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may also do good you that are
accustomed to do evil.” The leopon is the cross of a lion and a leopard
one such animal at the London Zoo had the jaw of a lioness and the spots
of a leopard.