Stunning never-before-seen images show an ultra-rare black leopard as it pads out in the cover of darkness with its sooty coat camouflaged against the night sky.

The photographs, included in a new book titled The Black Leopard: My Quest to Photograph One of Africa's Most Elusive Cats, were shot by British wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas after he spent a year tracking the mysterious mammal in Laikipia, Kenya.

Burrard-Lucas, 37, released the initial batch of images he took of a black leopard in 2019 and they quickly went viral as it was the first time one had been caught on camera as part of a scientific study in Africa for 100 years.

The leopard's black colour is the result of melanism. This genetic variation, the opposite of albinism, results in an excess of dark pigmentation.

Burrard-Lucas' favourite shots of the black leopard, show it in the foreground with starry skies beyond.

In his blog, he details how it took him 'six months of perseverance' to get his 'dream photograph' as the conditions had to be just right and the leopard had to be moving in the right direction.

He explains: 'I wanted head-on shots so that meant when the animal passed by my camera I had a 50-50 chance of either seeing his face or backside.'

Eventually, after dozens of misses, Burrard-Lucas got the shot he was after with 'the black leopard prowling under a carpet or stars'.

Source

A lucky safari park visitor caught a rare glimpse at a patient mother leopard relocating her small baby cubs and helping them cross the road.

Thinus Delport, 64, told his daughters to start singing to entice the animals out while visiting the Kruger National Park in South Africa and to their surprise it worked.

The leopard mother is first spotted with her cubs in the bushes to the side of the road, much to the excitement of visitors who can be heard cooing at the adorable youngsters in the background of the clip. The spotted animal soon realises they didn't come with her and stands in the middle of the road patiently waiting for them before going back and sitting in front of the bushes where they are hidden.

She fetches them again for attempt number two and the sweet cubs sheepishly walk across the road where several cars have stopped to watch and let them pass safely. One of them falls behind and decides to have a rest in the middle of the road and can be heard screeching for its mother.

It tries to turn back round but the mother swiftly grabs hold of its neck and sets it on the right path before disappearing again into the bushes.

Kruger National Park gives visitors the opportunity to see big cats in the wild but it is rare to see a leopard relocating her cubs at such a young age.


Mr Delport saw the animals cross a road 6km from Lower Sabie towards Crocodile Bridge. He told Latest Sightings.com: 'Early morning, my daughters and I left the camp looking for leopards. They were convinced that there are no leopards in the Kruger, as neither of them had ever seen one. As we drove, I jokingly convinced them to start singing in the car, to draw the leopards out, and so they did – and to my surprise – it actually worked.


'It was my daughter’s first visit to the Kruger and she was the first to whip out her video camera. I’m glad she did because I would have been shaking so much from excitement, that the footage might have just been ruined.


'We’ve been visiting the Kruger for over 50 years, and not once have we seen something like this. This just came to show that patience really does pay off.'

Within hours, the mama leopard’s instincts led her to her crying babies, and their miraculous reunion was caught on camera!

 The expansion of human the population is a leading cause of deforestation and habitat loss for countless plant and animal species.

Between the greed of industries and the booming demand for increased housing and farmland, humans are expanding on natural habitats at an astonishing rate. As people move in closer to native animal habitats, human conflict is inevitable.

Since 1995, Wildlife SOS has been actively protecting India’s wildlife and conserving its endangered habitats.

They help maintain the earth’s biodiversity and educate communities on sustainable alternatives to poaching. When they received a call notifying them of two tiny mewing baby leopards in a sugarcane field, they were quick to respond.

Loss of habitat forces species like the leopard to find shelter in places frequented by humans, such as this sugarcane field where two baby leopards were discovered by farmers. Wildlife SOS was there to help out these precious felines.


After examining the cubs and discovering they were healthy, the Wildlife SOS team were quick to release them back to nature where their mother was desperately searching for them.
Source

These amazing pictures show the remarkable rescue effort to save a leopard which fell down a well in India while looking for prey.

The big cat was pictured with its glowing eyes peering up at the people on the top of the well, who called rescue workers from the Guwahati Zoo to help save the struggling animal.

The distressed leopard was drenched, with just its head sticking out of the muddy water littered with broken wood floating on the surface, as it waited from the rescuers to arrive.

Crowds of people gather to watch the audacious effort, with many lending a hand to pull buckets of water up from the well so that the leopard doesn't drown while unconscious.

One man carefully climbs down the damp walls of the well and bravely ties the ropes around the animals neck and torso so that the army of helpers at the top can drag it to safety.
Source

When Zorro was just a young leopard, he had his paws cruelly declawed. So when his owner, a Las Vegas entertainer, turned him over to Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary in 2007, he was at risk of a lifetime of pain from the unnatural procedure.

 Fortunately, he was able to undergo a restorative surgery that ensured he could live a life without pain. But his story's an important reminder of the dark practice that often haunts performing or "pet" big cats.

Susan Bass, PR director for the Florida sanctuary Big Cat Rescue told that her group often sees cats come in with declawed paws. "It's just as painful for the big cats as it is for domestic cats," she said. "You take the first piece of ... their actual bones."


"What's sad about big cats especially is that a lot of times it's done without anesthesia or a trained veterinarian, when they're small cubs," she said. Their sellers can then market them as pets or performers who will bond with their owners and can't hurt them — teeth aside.

Fortunately, it looks like Zorro is now pain-free — and putting his paws to good use.
 Source

A wild leopard has been rescued from the bottom of a well in a rural part of India.

 A group of villagers and forest officials rescued the animal after it found itself trapped at the bottom of a well in a rural area of Panchmahal district in the Indian state of Gujarat.

Local men involved in the effort said they had heard noises from the spot and then discovered it stuck inside. The rescuers attempted to ensnare the leopard in a rope, but the animal growled and pounced fiercely when it was being caught.

Eventually the leopard was saved without sustaining any injuries. Report by Claire Mewse.


These villagers, however, chose to help as opposed to killing the cat or leaving it to die. The frightened animal wasn’t too keen on the rescue efforts being made, but his heroes were able to pull it off without hurting him. Once out of the well, the leopard was taken to an area a safe distance away from the village and released into the wild again, proving that there’s always a humane choice.