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BLACK PANTHER in january 2019, british photographer will burrard-lucas photographed a black leopard in kenya - the first scientific documentation of such a creature in Africa in nearly a century. how did will capture these images, and what do we know about these rare and mysterious felines? all images © naturepl.com my quest to photograph a black leopard by will burrard-lucas my India trip, my friends James and Abigail from Ker & Downey told me one such sto- Since childhood I have been fascinated by ry… that a black leopard had been seen up stories of black panthers. For me, no animal at Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya. My ‘‘is shrouded in more mystery, no animal is ears pricked up and I contacted the owners more elusive, and no animal is more beau- Steve and Annabelle Carey to find out more. tiful. For many years they remained the Steve confirmed that it was true and he had stuff of dreams and of far-fetched stories seen several black leopards over the years. told around the campfire at night. Nobody That was enough for me and I decided to I knew had ever seen one in the wild and I invest some time in checking it out. never thought that I would either. But that On arrival in Laikipia, Steve took me to didn’t stop me dreaming… meet Luisa Ancilotto who lives close to Then, a couple of years ago, photos started the camp and had seen a black leopard emerging of a black leopard in India. It was recently. She told us as much as she knew a cat that had made its territory in the tou- about the leopard’s habits and territory. rist area of Kabini Forest in Karnataka. The Then Steve managed to pick up some leopard was hard to see but some persistent fresh leopard tracks nearby and followed photographers managed to capture images them to a path that leopards seemed to be of it that got my pulse racing. using. I deployed a plethora of camera traps Then, by chance, I was asked to speak at each consisting of a Camtraptions wireless the Nature in Focus Festival in Bangalore motion sensor, a high-quality DSLR camera last September. I took this opportunity to and two or three flashes. I had high hopes spend three days searching Kabini Forest of photographing a leopard, but would it be for the famous cat. The festival organisers black? arranged for me to be guided by Giri Cavale, The next day I eagerly checked the cameras a photographer whose knack for finding the but had no images of leopards. I was dis- elusive black panther is legendary. heartened and suddenly felt the enormity I didn’t have high hopes of seeing it in such of what I was trying to achieve. Surely I was a short period of time but as we explored not going to be lucky enough to actually the forest it was thrilling just to know the photograph a melanistic African leopard?! cat was out there. Then, on the second day, I left the cameras for several more nights. we managed to spot the black leopard cros- On returning, I checked them and by the sing the road in front of us! It was far away time I got to the last camera, all I had seen but I was enthralled and managed to cap- were pictures of hyenas but no leopards. I ture the image opposite. The lucky encoun- had a quick look at the last trap, not expec- ter ignited my imagination and I dreamed ting to find much. As I scrolled through the more than ever of finding and photogra- images on the back of the camera, I paused phing one of these stunning cats in Africa. and peered at the photograph on the next I have never seen a high-quality image of page in incomprehension… a pair of eyes a wild black leopard come out of Africa, surrounded by inky darkness… a black leo- even though stories of them being seen are pard! I couldn’t believe it and it took a few sometimes told… “a friend of a friend saw days before it sank in that I had achieved a black leopard crossing the road early one my dream. morning”. By chance, around the time of Over the days that followed I moved the camera traps around as I gained a deeper understanding of the leopard’s movements. ‘‘ Then, on the night of the full moon, I cap- tured the shot opposite as the moon was setting behind a ridge. Needless to say, I was thrilled that I had captured such an atmospheric image. As far as I know, these are the first high- quality camera trap photographs of a wild melanistic leopard ever taken in Africa. I can still scarcely believe that this project – which started out as a speculative recce trip – has paid such spectacular dividends! See the moment Will discovered he’d captured his first image of a black leopard in this video what is A BLACK PANTHER ? It’s a species of big cat with black fur, right? Well, no, not exactly. Despite this commonly held belief, the term ‘black panther’ doesn’t actually refer to a distinct species at all. It’s an umbrella term for any big cat with an all-black coat. In Asia and Africa, it mostly refers to black leopards (right) but in the Americas, it usually means a black jaguar (below). Leopards and jaguars are sepa- rate species, but both can be black panthers. Black panthers are as mysterious as their occurs in humans, and is the reason why As stealth shadowy appearance suggests. What we get sun tans). predators that are we do know, is that their existence is the In the cats, a mutation in the MC1 or ASP very hard to see, black result of a genetic accident; a mutation genes results in the overproduction of panthers are sometimes in either the ‘Melanocortin-1’ (MC1) or melanin, which leads to an all-black coat. nicknamed ‘ghosts of ‘Agouti Signalling Protein’ (ASP) gene, The term ‘melanistic’ is used to refer to both of which affect the distribution of black panthers and all animals with a the forest’ the dark pigment melanin (melanin also surplus of melanin. BLACK PANTHERS have been documented in species of wild cats but to date there have 13been no known cases... of melanistic lions or tigers. Melanism occurs regular melanistic most commonly in leopards or jaguars, form form but the Asian golden cat also has a high frequency of melanism in certain parts of its range. jaguar leopard asiatic golden cat BLACK PANTHERS ARE All these images show the same individual, a male RaRE melanistic leopard from and photographs of them in ...the wild are even rarer, especially since Nagarahole National Park, they seldom come out during the day. Karnataka, India. Spotted and striped cats rely on their This cat is currently the only markings to break up their outline in known black panther in the dappled vegetation, but black panthers Park, but there are others lose this advantage under daylight found across India. conditions. However, some scientists believe that the melanistic cats are better concealed at night and therefore ‘This cat is usually very more effective nocturnal hunters. shy,’ says photographer Giri Cavale, who took these images. ‘The park is very densely vegetated and getting clear shots is tough. On this rare day, however, he came out in the open to patrol and mark his territory.’ [Left] The ancestral form standing out of the peppered moth is white with dark speckles from the crowd but, after the Industrial Revolution, the darker Melanism occurs broadly across the melanistic form became animal kingdom, resulting in the more common in pollu- dark pigmentation of skin, fur, ted woodlands, where it feathers or scales. was better-camouflaged on sooty trees. [Right] Melanistic forms have been observed in both red and grey squir- rels. Some scientists have speculated that the mutated gene, which also occurs in the white blood cells, could give the squirrels better im- munity against disease. [Left] A melanistic zebra is one whose stripes haven’t developed cor- rectly. Some scientists [Above] All-black penguins are so rare claim that zebra’s stripes that scientists don’t know if the unusual are formed from the coloration has any effect on the birds’ inhibition of melanin and feeding or reproductive success. that the “default” colour of a zebra is black, with white stripes. [Right] Black wolves are the result of a genetic mutation in their K locus gene, which first came [Above] Black adders are not uncommon, about after hybridisation which may be because their darkened skin between a grey wolf and cells affords them an advantage. They can a domestic dog. There warm up more quickly and feed on days are more black wolves which would be too cold for their regular- in North America than scaled counterparts. there are in Europe. melanism is the opposite of albinism An animal with a complete absence of melanin is called an albino, while an organism with a diminished amount of melanin (such as a white tiger that retains its black stripes) is described as leucistic or albinoid. Genetic mutations can have multiple side effects. For Like their example, some scientists regular-furred suspect that melanism increases disease resistance. Black counterparts, black panthers also have a reputation panthers still have spots. for being more aggressive They’re just harder to see. The than their spotted spots are most conspicuous counterparts.

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