I was getting my hair cut today when I noticed a little leopard figure that someone had made. I asked them how to say it in Japanese and they gave me a note: 豹 ヒョウ and translated it as "panther".

Later, they corrected their own English and told me it was a leopard.　I looked it up on my iPod Wisdom dictionary, and it turns out that we get three new vocabulary for the price of one:

豹 = leopard
黒ヒョウ = (black) panther
アメリカヒョウ = jaguar

This is clearly a case where the Japanese is easier to remember than the English.

It also shows how an arbitrary mix of Kanji and kana could be used - just follow the convention!

I was originally told it was puma, but the other day found it as leopard. I thought it was because they were in the same family of cats but they are not.