L. David Keith's post about the black leopard photo got me thinking, has anyone ever seen and/or shot a wild black leopard?

http://forums.accuratereloadin.../1821043/m/457100386

Sevens,

A friend of mine, took his in I believe Iran. Here is the link to the photos.

I believe some (1 or 2 perhaps) have been taken in Ethiopia over the last decade or three.

No, but I have shot a Leopard on a very black night.

I just saw a very dark one two weeks ago in Zimbabwe. While on a bluff bank above some elephants we were sorting out, they kicked out a really nice leopard across the white sand of the dry river. He was considerably darker than the one I have mounted, and looked almost chocolate colored as he ran across about 60 yards of opening. We bumped him again about 20 minutes later and the tracker got a good look; said he was hard to see in the shade.

There's occasional sightings of black Leopards in the KNP and some of the taxidermists around the Pietersburg area have a few ((mostly) old and badly mounted) ones in their showrooms.

I also saw one in the Selous about 15 years ago but only for a few seconds.

As has already been said, Ethiopia seems to have a few and I hunted (Selous) with a client about 8 years ago who had some years previously taken one in Ethiopia.

I was just thinking about black leopards the other day when the movie Mogambo was on. They must have been extremenly common at one time in Africa because Clark Gable shot one in Mogambo and did not even go up to look at it!

Grace Kelly was just fine in that pit and could have waited a few minutes while he checked out that leopard.

Here's one from our old Gura Farda Concession. I think the year was 1989. I still see an occasional black leopard skin around the country.

Rich Elliott

Great subject. I find this color variation very interesting and looks like rare also.

Apparently, the melanistic phase is much more common in the jaguars of South America than in the leopards of Africa or Asia. There has always been rumored to be a melanistic North American cougar, but I don't think there is any reliable evidence of its existence.

Melanistic cats are actually not solid black. If you'll look closely at the photo above that Rich posted you'll see the faint outline of the typical roseattes found on "normal" leopards.

I would guess that as a trophy, a melanistic leopard would rank up there somewhere with an Angolan Giant Sable, if not above.

Way Cool!!

ddj

That is one beautifull cat! Does anyone know what is the price range these days?

Many years ago when I lived in Florida (High School) I saw a black panther twice. A friend had a small pool outside a window on Manasota key for the animals to drink and the coons to wash there food in when he fed them. One evening we were there and a Black panther was drinking out of the pool. It's quite a rush when one looks at you with those yellow eyes. Also saw one while driving in the swamp about a year later "1959"........Tom

quote:

when I lived in Florida (High School) I saw a black panther twice

They had those in other parts of the South. I've read in old books about the Delta mention of panthers in the 1800s. I have always assumed, without knowing the exact science on it, they were black jaguars related to those from south of the border and which there was more of in past times. Black bear too were common here until the early 1900s, but that's very well known.

quote:

Originally posted by Shack:
Black bear too were common here until the early 1900s, but that's very well known.

I knew a guy that kept bees in Rosedale, MS

He would have a hive smashed by a bear every year or two. Supposedly, the boars can make it across the river but the sows cant as easily. This keeps the chances of a breeding population low in MS, or so he says.

Duckear, because of where you are I'm guessing you might know of the area on the Ark side of the river south of Tunica they call Walnut Bend? There's a Hughes Hunting Club between the levees there that I was told in the '70s still had some limited original bear population. They actually referred to them as "honey bears". I hunted on adjacent land.

There's some really wild areas along the river down there and who knows what's still out there.

Anyway, the reference to the bees I couldn't resist. Apologies for borrowing the thread for that. As they say, now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I took pictures of this beautiful cat at a taxidermy in Windhoek. It was handed in to be restored and then to be sold. All I know is that it was not shot in Namibia and looking at the taxidermy work done on it, it was shot a long time ago. The ears had tears in them and a cool drink tin was used to give support on the inside.
Unfortuanitly I don't have any information about this leopard

I hunt about 35 miles south of Tunica, Miss. on the east side of the Mississippi river. Bears are becoming more common. For the last several months we have had a boar that weighted around 300 lbs hanging around the hunting property adjacent to ours. He occassionally wanders over to our property. Further south along the river bears are even more prevelant. We also have an abundance of hogs and must exercise cauthion and be darn sure we do not confuse a bear for a hog.

That looks like my chocolate lab

a zoo on the west coast had one back in the 70's. very very rare and beautiful.

quote:

Originally posted by Rich Elliott:


Here's one from our old Gura Farda Concession. I think the year was 1989. I still see an occasional black leopard skin around the country.

Rich Elliott

is there any more photographs of melanistic leopards taken by clients its extremely hard to find nice quality photos of such rare and interesting trophies

Black Panthers (as these leopards are called in India) are not that rare in the Western Ghats hills of South India. This region has high rain fall and hill forests going up to 8000 feet elevation in some places. The states of Tamil Nadu & Kerala have several National Parks and sanctuaries inter spread with tea, coffee and similar plantations. The city of Ooty is located about 30 miles from the sate border with plenty of forests and wildlife around. Black panthers are regularly seen in this region.

I have seen a photo taken in the late 70s of a black panther hunting in the grass slopes for Nilgiri tahr. This photo was taken by ERC Davidar the well known naturalist (former hunter who shot a rogue tusker in 1962).

His son Mark Davidar now owns a remote and very basic place bordering Mudumalai Sanctuary. You can sit in the veranda and watch the occasional tiger or leopard apart from lots of other animals. Here is a NYT article about the place. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10....html?pagewanted=all

Iwas running a safari camp (photographic) at Khwai in the Moremi, Botswana. (Built by Harry Selby.)

A Spanish PH was hunting out of Mochaba which was nearby and had his parents visiting and out on a game drive with my mate.

Their english was not good and my mate spoke no Spanish and during the drive they started yelling about some animal they saw yet my mate didn't. After the drive they complained to their son that the Gringo didn't stop for the 'black panther." The PH said not to worry, they were new in Africa and just to humour them!

Anyway, I had a group of Aussies I took out that evening and suddenly I saw an animal I had never seen before. It is amazing, I knew it was a cat and probably a leopard but you could not make out a single rosette, it was so black. it took me a while before I realised what I was seeing, got really excited and had them film it (it sat next to the track for a good 5 minutes) but I never had my camera. We watched the video over and over that evening - it was an awesome sighting.

I ahd to have the video evidence for my mate as the Aussies and I had had one or two stubbies!

Per Captain John Brandt's book, "Asian Hunter," apparently the melanistic leopard was fairly common in Malaysia. John was posted there when he was pretty young, and had the opportunity to hunt. I can't recall if this is in his book, but he told me that he actually had an opportunity to take a black leopard, but he passed because he was wanted one with spots.....(!)

Was the melanistic more common than the "normal" spotted and he wanted the rarer sub species? One would think, especially in todays world the Black would be the more desirable. To each his own, I know if I ever hunt Buffalo again it would be for a "scrum head" I guess that is the proper term. Or maybe a better term would be Darth Vader.