Black leopards are stunningly beautiful creatures, but phenomenally rare
Leopards are extremely secretive animals, often capable of living outside protected areas and in relatively close proximity with humans. The Indian Leopard only numbers 12000-14000 but generally in small populations.
When you go on safari in Africa, a leopard is the hardest of the big five to spot, and many people leave without having seen one.
To see a black or melanistic leopard is incredible. It’s thought that around 1-in 1000 leopards are born black, caused by recessive gene. Given their habitats being active at night, you would have thought this would be more advantageous and they would therefore be more common but it doesn’t seem to be.
In the rainforests of southeast Asia in places like Malaysia, black melanistic leopards can account for as much as 50% of the population. However in savanna ecosystems in Africa and in Asia they are far rarer and therefore seeing one is a real treat.
Annoyingly, I dont have the right to post the pictures myself. Here is a link for you to view the original article with the photo
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12281914/ultra-rare-black-leopard-spotted-india/
