Rare Black Leopard Spotted In Indian Wildlife Park As It Tries To Hunt A Deer

Wildlife is majestically beautiful in and of itself, but when there’s an oddball in the mix, it brings fascination to a whole new level.

Remember the pink manta ray, or the albino turtles that we covered some time ago? Yeah, that whole new level of fascination.

This time around, it’s a rare black melanistic leopard that was spotted in an Indian wildlife park mid-hunt.

It’s not every day that you’ll see a leopard. It’s also not everyday you’ll see a black one

Image credits: Anurag Gawande / Caters

So, 24-year-old wildlife photographer Anurag Gawande was on a safari in the Tadoba National Park, located in the in western state of Maharashtra in India. He was expecting to snap some tigers—as the Tadoba National Park is sometimes referred to as the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve.

Well, he was left quite surprised to see a leopard prance out on the road. And no ordinary leopard, but a black one! For those unaware, leopards actually come in a variety of bright spotted coats, ranging from yellow to orange, with the exception of the Javan leopard, which is predominantly black.

Photographer Anurag Gawande had a unique chance to snap pictures of a rare melanistic black leopard

Image credits: Anurag Gawande / Caters

However, this one in particular is a melanistic leopard, meaning that it was supposed to be like many other leopards—bright yellow/orange, but there was an overabundance of black pigment in its skin during development, leading to what Gawande witnessed through his photo lens 30 feet away from him.

Melanistic leopards are rare as it is, because of poacher activity, but this particular one is considered the rarest of its kind because of its distinct black spots found on the dark coat. It is estimated that around 11 percent of leopards have this kind of pigmentation, and this one’s the only one of its kind in the national park.

It is said that this rare kind of leopard comprises only 11% of the leopard population

Image credits: Anurag Gawande / Caters

Image credits: Anurag Gawande / Caters

Turns out, the unique black male leopard was on the hunt at the time of the pictures—he was out to get some deer in the safari. And as we can see in the footage, the leopard didn’t seem to mind everyone gawking at him in amazement. He was just minding his own business and staying on the hunt.

The leopard eventually saw the deer, but wasn’t successful in hunting it down. Gawande explained that afterwards, he came back to the road and sat there for a good 15 minutes, during which the cameras went wild.

The leopard was spotted in the Tadoba National Park, Maharashtra state, India while hunting a deer

Image credits: Anurag Gawande / Caters

Check out the video of the black leopard in action below

Image credits: Anurag Gawande / Caters

As it stands now, the Indian leopard is considered a vulnerable species with an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 living in the nation. This is mainly due to poaching and human-animal conflict. Though leopards are some of the least likely man-eating species of ‘big cats,’ there is still a chance of it happening, hence the conflict.

Bored Panda has covered another melanistic black leopard, except this one was in Africa, some time ago, so you can go check that out if you haven’t had your leopard fill yet. But before you go, tell us what unique wildlife you’ve spotted in the wild in the comment section below!

Many online were in awe seeing this majestic animal, while others shared their sightings

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