These are some really unique places.
Black leopards are a rarity, and black leopards with visible spots are even rarer. So when 24-year-old photographer Anurag Gawande saw such a beautiful creature on a safari in India’s Tadoba National Park this month, he knew he was blessed with a truly lucky photo.
“It was surprising because we thought we were going to see a tiger, but we saw a black leopard strolling the path,” Gawande told the Daily Mail that he was only 10 meters away from the leopard.
According to the Daily Mail, about 11% of leopards suffer from pigmentation, also called ‘melanistic’, which causes both their fur and skin to turn black. The unique genetic event has unfortunately made such creatures a target for poachers, and only 12,000 to 14,000 are believed to still live in India.
He managed to take several photos of the animal, which he says is the only black leopard in Tadoba National Park, after it failed to catch a deer and came to rest on the red clay road.
“It got back on the road and stayed there for 15 to 20 minutes, and we got a great picture of the majestic animal.”
Their meeting this month wasn’t Gawande’s first: he came across it last year, but that didn’t make the more recent meeting any less special.
“This was the second time I’ve looked at it,” he said. “I felt the same excitement watching it, but this time I was aware of the moment. We kept our vehicle off and kept enough distance so that it wouldn’t move away from the spot. “
In 2019, a photographer also made headlines when he photographed a black leopard at Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya. Also in 2019 a rare “strawberry leopard” was photographed in South Africa.