A rare black African Leopard was on Monday captured in Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Kenya by a British wildlife photographer ,Burrard-Lucas.
It was Steve who tipped off Will on the whereabouts of the elusive melanistic leopard, after picking up on fresh tracks allegedly belonging to the black panther, that had been spotted close to the wilderness camp.
The veteran wildlife photographer was then able to set up his Camtraptions camera traps at the most ideal spots and waited it out.
he first person to photograph the black leopard in more than a century in the local wildlife haven run by Steve Carey.
The animal – whose coat is sooty black as a result of melanism, the opposite of albinism – is extremely rare. The wild African black leopard has been the stuff of legend and campfire story for decades.
“The biggest challenge in this project was knowing where to put my camera traps. When I heard that a black leopard had been seen up at Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya my ears pricked up and I contacted the owners Steve and Annabelle Carey to find out more,” Will revealed in his blog post.
Here is one of the videos he captured;
In a video documenting his photography expedition, Burrard-Lucas explains: ‘As far as I know none of these leopards has never been photographed properly in Africa before… So I’ve left the cameras for a few days and now I’m heading back to see if I’ve got anything.’
While checking his equipment, the photographer continues: ‘Scrub hare, mongoose… we have something. All I can see is eyes but this is a black leopard emerging from the darkness. Look at this!
‘I can’t believe it really. I think when I started this project I didn’t actually think I was going to be able to achieve a shot of a black leopard in Africa but that it is exactly what is here on the back of my camera. Just the most stunning, spectacular creature I think I’ve ever photographed!’
However Kenyans on Facebook didn’t take this as a surprise;
