PHOTOS: Rare Black African leopard spotted for the first time in more than a century
A British photographer took these images in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya.
Will Burrard-Lucas became the first person to photograph a rare African black leopard in more than a century.
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According to Evening Standard, researchers from the Institute for Conservation Research at the San Diego Zoo, were also at the camp studying the same leopard at the same time as Burrard-Lucas. The wild African black leopard has not been spotted in the last 100 years.
The extremely rare leopard has a black coat as a result of melanism, which is the opposite of albinism.
The incredibly rare and elusive black leopard has been captured on camera for the first time in over 100 years in Africa 🖤
— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) February 13, 2019
📸 @willbl pic.twitter.com/e6NYZA8fVC
Burrard-Lucas was trying to spot the leopard for several days without success when he finally 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,” Burrad-Luca told The Guardian.
Image Courtesy of BBC Earth / Photographer: Will Burrard-Lucas.