No it is not who you think but what you think.Will heard rumors of a black panther which is a loose term for a black leopard or black jaguar, depending on where in the world it’s from, at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya. After following leopard tracks through the undergrowth with a guide called Steve, Will settled on a place to set up his Camtraptions camera traps.
Wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas managed it – and it’s thought to be the first time anyone has captured a melanistic leopard on camera in Africa in 100 years. Very few images of these iconic, secretive creatures exist. Will heard rumours of a black panther – which is a loose term for a black leopard or black jaguar, depending where in the world it’s from – at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya. After following leopard tracks through the undergrowth with a guide called Steve, Will settled on a place to set up his Camtraptions camera traps. “I’m quite used to doing camera traps and not actually achieving anything because it is such a speculative thing – you don’t know if the animal you’re trying to get is going to come down the trail that you’ve set the cameras up on.” They weren’t sure whether the tracks they were following were those of the black leopard or a regular spotted one.
“We had always heard about black leopards living in this region, but the stories were absent of high quality footage that could confirm their existence,” said Nicholas Pilfold PhD, lead researcher for a leopard conservation program in Laikipia County.“Usually on these camera trap photos with the flash you see the animal very clearly. But as it blended in with the black night so well all I could see was these eyes staring out of the picture.”Black Panther has been everywhere in recent years – but spotting one of the animals the famous superhero is named after in the African wilderness is a little more rare.