Abhishek Pangis is an engineering student that has captured absolutely stunning photographs of a rare black leopard. Abishek is from Pune in western Maharashtra state, and he spent 40 minutes watching the majestic feline at Tadoba Reserve. The 23-year-old said he ‘went blank’ when he first saw the leopard.
He said: “I hadn’t seen anything so beautiful, I was completely stunned. Usually people have seen it around for two or three minutes but I was very lucky as I could see it for 40 minutes.”
He watched the cat “drinking water from a pond, marking its territory and stalking langurs and monkeys”
Its dark coat is caused by melanism – when extra black pigment develops in the skin or hair because of a recessive genetic mutation
After ten minutes Abhishek realized he was the only person on the trip with a camera and started taking photographs of the rare animal
Abhishek and his parents saw the leopard in June when it was 113F (45C) and the cat needed to leave the undergrowth for water
The amazing photos show the glorious leopard, a beautiful one-of-a-kind coat with dark black spots while marking its territory in the wild.
Normally these black leopards stay within the undergrowth before heading out to hunt at night. The extreme temperatures of the Indian summer forced it out from its hiding spots to seek water.
This was recently captured by a wildlife photographer Mithun Hunugund, this stunning moment in which a female leopard is being shadowed by her black panther partner in Kabini, Karnataka, India
