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Journalism of Courage
Netizens are often intrigued by rare incidents happening in the wild, especially when it comes to big cats. This time, a melanistic leopard descending from a tree and sprinting into the wilderness has surfaced online.
Susanta Nanda, Indian Forest Service officer, who often shares amazing glimpses from the wild, has shared on Twitter the clip of a black leopard swiftly climbing down a tree and running away, as a safari vehicle is parked at a distance.
The video was captured from the Pench Tiger Reserve spread across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. “Melanistic black leopard casts a black magic on the safari vehicles. From Pench. The sound is unbearable. But who cares for the wilderness of the wild….” Nanda tweeted. Since being shared an hour ago, the clip has amassed more than 1,200 views on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/susantananda3/status/1590569229270384640
The animal appears in black due to the high amount of pigmentation and their spots are hard to distinguish.
Last year, a black leopard was spotted in the Navegaon block of the Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) in the Gondia district of Maharashtra. The photograph went viral after it was shared by Dr Bilal Habib, a scientist with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) on Twitter. The rare melanistic tiger was captured in camera traps during the annual census work in the reserve. Black leopard sightings were also earlier reported in the Pench Tiger Reserve.
In September this year, a video showing a little black tiger cub roaming in the forest along with its mother took the internet by storm. Before that, an adult tiger marking its territory in the forest was caught on camera and IFS officer Parveen Kaswan noted that the rare tigers were first officially found at the Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha in 2007.
