Black Panther spotted in Laikipia Conservancy

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A black leopard, Bagheera, has been spotted near Loisaba Conservancy in Laikipia. This appearance is more than likely to cement Kenya’s place as a natural tourist destination.

This is the second black panther to be spotted in Laikipia after a similar discovery was recorded by then Nation photojournalist Phoebe Okall in 2013 at Ol Jogi Conservancy.

According to the National Geographic the black leopard captured by Mr Pilfold in 2018 has melanism and the last such sighting was in 1909.

“The opposite of albinism, melanism is the result of a gene that causes a surplus of pigment in the skin or hair of an animal so that it appears black. Melanistic leopards have been reported in and around Kenya for decades, but scientific confirmation of their existence remains quite rare,” states National Geographic on their website.

Very Rare

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Their range across much of the continent has shrunk by at least 66 percent due to habitat loss and prey decline.

“Almost everyone has a story about seeing one, it’s such a mythical thing,” says Mr Pilfold, of San Diego Zoo Global’s Institute for Conservation Research.

“Even when you talk to the older guys that were guides in Kenya many years ago, back when hunting was legal [in the 1950s and ‘60s], there was a known thing that you didn’t hunt black leopards. If you saw them, you didn’t take it.”

National Geographic adds that there are nine leopard subspecies ranging from Africa all the way to eastern Russia.

And while 11 percent of leopards alive today are thought to be melanistic, says Pilfold, most are found in Southeast Asia, where tropical forests offer an abundance of shade.

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