Images were taken by British wildlife photographer, Will Burrard-Lucas, in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya.

The wild African black leopard has been the stuff of legend and campfire story for decades.

The animal – whose coat is sooty black as a result of melanism, the opposite of albinism – is extremely rare.

But a British wildlife photographer has become the first person to photograph the black leopard in more than a century.

Will Burrard-Lucas captured the images, which were released to the public on Monday, at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya after hearing reports of sightings in the area.

After meeting with locals who had seen the animals, and following leopard tracks, Burrard-Lucas set up a Camtraptions camera trap that included wireless motion sensors, in the hope of photographing the animals at night.

After several days without success Burrard-Lucas returned to his cameras to find a striking image.

“I had a quick look at the last trap, not expecting to find much,” Burrard-Lucas wrote on his blog. “As I scrolled through the images on the back of the camera, I paused and peered at the photograph below in incomprehension … a pair of eyes surrounded by inky darkness … a black leopard! I couldn’t believe it and it took a few days before it sank in that I had achieved my dream.”

Full report

Excellent.

really nice picture/moment

It’s certainly a striking cat.

Bubblecar said:

It’s certainly a striking cat.

I wouldn’t like to be struck by it…

Bubblecar said:

Images were taken by British wildlife photographer, Will Burrard-Lucas, in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya.

The wild African black leopard has been the stuff of legend and campfire story for decades.

The animal – whose coat is sooty black as a result of melanism, the opposite of albinism – is extremely rare.

But a British wildlife photographer has become the first person to photograph the black leopard in more than a century.

Will Burrard-Lucas captured the images, which were released to the public on Monday, at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya after hearing reports of sightings in the area.

After meeting with locals who had seen the animals, and following leopard tracks, Burrard-Lucas set up a Camtraptions camera trap that included wireless motion sensors, in the hope of photographing the animals at night.

After several days without success Burrard-Lucas returned to his cameras to find a striking image.

“I had a quick look at the last trap, not expecting to find much,” Burrard-Lucas wrote on his blog. “As I scrolled through the images on the back of the camera, I paused and peered at the photograph below in incomprehension … a pair of eyes surrounded by inky darkness … a black leopard! I couldn’t believe it and it took a few days before it sank in that I had achieved my dream.”

Full report

Warning: tongue in cheek.

It’s not a leopard, it’s a panther.

A panther is the melanistic color variant of any big cat species. Black panthers in Asia and Africa are leopards (Panthera pardus), and those in the Americas are black jaguars (Panthera onca).

Leopard populations indicate that melanism occurs in seven subspecies: Javan leopard (P. p. melas), African leopard (P. p. pardus), Indian leopard (P. p. fusca), Indochinese leopard (P. p. delacouri), Sri Lankan leopard (P. p. kotiya), Arabian leopard and Amur leopard (P. p. orientalis). Black leopards are common in the equatorial rainforest of the Malay Peninsula and the tropical rainforest on the slopes of some African mountains such as Mount Kenya. Melanistic leopards are common in Java, and are reported from densely forested areas in southwestern China, Myanmar, Assam and Nepal, from Travancore and some parts of southern India where they may be more numerous than spotted leopards.

Bubblecar said:

Images were taken by British wildlife photographer, Will Burrard-Lucas, in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya.

The wild African black leopard has been the stuff of legend and campfire story for decades.

The animal – whose coat is sooty black as a result of melanism, the opposite of albinism – is extremely rare.

But a British wildlife photographer has become the first person to photograph the black leopard in more than a century.

Will Burrard-Lucas captured the images, which were released to the public on Monday, at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya after hearing reports of sightings in the area.

After meeting with locals who had seen the animals, and following leopard tracks, Burrard-Lucas set up a Camtraptions camera trap that included wireless motion sensors, in the hope of photographing the animals at night.

After several days without success Burrard-Lucas returned to his cameras to find a striking image.

“I had a quick look at the last trap, not expecting to find much,” Burrard-Lucas wrote on his blog. “As I scrolled through the images on the back of the camera, I paused and peered at the photograph below in incomprehension … a pair of eyes surrounded by inky darkness … a black leopard! I couldn’t believe it and it took a few days before it sank in that I had achieved my dream.”

Full report

See, it was released into the wilds of Africa in 2018. (TIC)

“Black Panther breaks box office records in East, West and South Africa …
Mar 21, 2018 – The hype surrounding the film was palpable in Africa and that has translated into real profits for Marvel Studios’ first black superhero. Five weeks after its release, it became the highest grossing film of all time in three regions”.

Black leopards, also known as panthers, are not rare in the world.

Here’s a photo of a black leopard from 2018 in South Africa.

https://davidyarrow.photography/collections/black-panther/

This website has 103 photographs of panthers
https://www.pinterest.com.au/rozzy101/black-panther/?lp=true

Bubblecar said:

Images were taken by British wildlife photographer, Will Burrard-Lucas, in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya.

The wild African black leopard has been the stuff of legend and campfire story for decades.

The animal – whose coat is sooty black as a result of melanism, the opposite of albinism – is extremely rare.

But a British wildlife photographer has become the first person to photograph the black leopard in more than a century.

Good

Nice pictures too.

Black Jaguar

Ian said:

Black Jaguar

I’ll eat you good mon!

PermeateFree said:

Ian said:

Black Jaguar

I’ll eat you good mon!

I wonder what makes someone think what a beautiful animal lets shoot it

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

Ian said:

Black Jaguar

I’ll eat you good mon!

I wonder what makes someone think what a beautiful animal lets shoot it

I’ll say. Let’s ban animal photographers.

More seriously, I worry about the effect of camera flashes on wildlife such as the big cats at night.