A mechanistic leopard fondly refereed to as black panther, was spotted in Laikipia county for the first in a span of 100 years.
The rare images going round the internet, were captured by British wildlife photographer, Will Burrard-Lucas on 11th February 2018 at the the Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Kenya.
Burrard-Lucas, set up his camera traps after he was tipped by camp owner Steve Carey. He would later share his findings on his blog.
“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 wrote on his blog post
After setting up his Camtraptions camera traps, he had to wait for four good days, before he clicked his shutter to capture the black leopard, which is a fictitiously refereed to as Black Panther in Movies.
Black Panther itself, is not a scientific species! They are just melanistic jaguars or leopards who underwent gene mutation to take the black colour.
His findings already noted in the Journal of African Ecology, were warmly received by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) who through their official acknowledged the citing of the black species of leopards but had not yet received any photographic facts of the same animal.
Lupita’s reaction
Black Panther, a movie starring Kenya’s top actress Lupita Nyong’o was actually plotted in ‘Wakanda’ land, a set thought to be in East Africa, exact place Black Panther was sited.
The Hollywood actress Lupita was shocked by the news of the real sighting of the rare animal in her homeland.
She posted on Twitter.
Actual #BlackPanther siting in Kenya. Unreal!
Lupita played as Nakia in the blockbuster movie that was hugely celebrated in Africa, and more so much in Kenya
As Nakia, she played as a Wakandan spy, T’Challa’s lover and a member of the War Dogs, who was often sent on missions around the world, witnessing the hardships .
Facts You Didn’t Know About Black Panthers
- A black panther is the melanistic color variant of any big cat species
- Panthera pardus is used to refer to black panthers in Africa, Asia and Europe which are basically black leopards while those in America are called Panthera onca because they are formed from Jaguars.
- Close look at these mutated animals will reveal that the initial markings of the animals are still there
- Several websites on wildlife have sighted Mount Kenya, as a home for African Black Panthers.
- Mutated panthers and normal Jaguars and Leopards usually walk together and can be buddies, mate and reproduce as usual.
- Jaguars are strong and well built, as compared to Leopards.
- Black Panther itself, is not a scientific species! They are just melanistic jaguars or leopards who underwent gene mutation to take the black colour.
