Will Burrard Lucas – a wildlife photographer, wrote on his blog that he had always wanted to photograph a wild black leopard, so when he heard rumors of a black leopard crossing the road in Kenya, he headed there to try spot the melanistic leopard. Will contacted the owners of the reserve where the leopard was supposedly spotted and the owner confirmed that the rumors were true.
Will headed out to Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya, he then set camera traps to try capture photos of the black cat, after checking the cameras the first time he hadn’t captured any black leopard photos instead had photos of hyenas. After a few days he checked the cameras again he had finally had photos of a black leopard.
Over the next few days he moved the cameras and was able to capture more footage of the black leopard, before it disappeared after being chased away by a big spotty male leopard.
Will’s photos are the first high-quality photographs of a wild black leopard.
You can read our posts explaining melanism in leopard in this post.