Here are some really unique points.
Black leopards are a rarity, and black leopards with visible spots are even rarer. So when photographer Anurag Gawande, 24, saw such a beautiful creature during a safari in Tadoba National Park this month, he knew he had been blessed with a really lucky shot.
“It was amazing because we thought we would see a tiger, but we saw a black leopard walking down the road,” Gawande told the Daily Mail that he was only 30 meters from the leopard.
About 11% of leopards have a pigmentation condition, known as “melanistic,” which turns both the coat and skin black, according to the Daily Mail. Unfortunately, the only genetic fact has turned these creatures into targets of poachers and it is believed that only between 12,000 and 14,000 people still inhabit India.
He managed to capture several shots of the animal, which he says is the only black leopard in Tadoba National Park, after he failed to get any deer and came to rest on the red clay road.
“He went back to the road and sat there for 15 or 20 minutes, and we got an amazing shot of the majestic animal.”
This month’s meeting wasn’t Gawande’s first: he also found it last year, but that didn’t make the most recent meeting any less special.
“This was my second time seeing her,” he said. “I felt the same emotion as I saw him, but this time I was aware of his moment. We kept the vehicle off and kept enough distance so that it would not move from the place.
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.