News Excerpt:
Through video traps deployed for the ongoing tiger census, Odisha forest officials discovered two black leopards, or melanistic leopards in two separate jungle locales.
- A black panther has darkish brown (or black) fur with black rosettes and is sometimes visible under favorable light conditions.
- These panthers or melanistic leopards are therefore not a separate species, but a form of melanism.
- A melanistic tiger is located in Similipal Tiger Reserve in the Mayurbhanj district.
- They blend into the shadows and are practically undetectable in the dark.
Leopards and their characteristics:
- Indian landscape is dominated by the Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) and the black version is also of the same species.
- Besides India, Panthera pardus fusca is also found in Nepal, Bhutan, and parts of Pakistan.
- Black leopards are found more in regions with the highest rainfall and dense foliage.
- Most of the records about the existence of black leopards in India have been from North East India and Western Ghats.
- Male leopards are bigger than female leopards.
- A male usually weighs between 50kgs to 80kgs while a female is typically between 29kgs to 35kgs.
- Leopards have strong legs, which help them climb trees, and big boulders, and their long tails help them balance themselves on the branches while chasing monkeys up in the trees.
- Leopards can be quite adaptive to most of the regions. They are found in all kinds of forests – rainforests, deciduous forests, and alpine coniferous forests.
- They are also found in semi-arid regions, some parts of the desert, and dry scrub grasslands.
- Leopards have also started to familiarize themselves with the fringes of popular metro cities and agricultural fields.
There are a total 9 subspecies of leopards found in the world:
- African Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus)
- North China Leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis)
- Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor)
- Sri Lankan Leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya)
- Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca)
- Javan Leopard (Panthera pardus melas)
- Arabian Leopard (Panthera pardus nimr)
- Indochinese Leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri)
- Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis)
