I have never heard of one of these color mutations in a leopard before. How beautiful.
Andrew
A Strawberry Leopard
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Thanks, Andrew. No, I had never heard of this either. Though I have read about sightings of a ‘blue’ leopard in China some years ago – presumably a melanistic leopard with a less than usually dark coat…
Miles
Sure Miles. I love hearing about these various color morphs of animals, especially melanistic and albino/leucistic. There was a cheetah in S. Africa a few years ago that had no spots. It was gorgeous.
Andrew
Of course, my memory may be at fault and it was a blue TIGER I read about…
That happens to all of us eventually:-) I’ve seen photos of tigers like that.
Andrew
In 2012 a strawberry male leopard from South Africa was seen: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/4/120412-strawberry-leopard-south-africa-animals-science/
Maybe its father?
The spotless cheetah is here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/apr/25/spotless-cheetah-pictures-wild
They are not frequently seen at all, but are frequently captured in parts of South Africa, if not on camera trap.
How is this possible? Is it nature doing this? Is it science doing this? How does one explain this mutation. Never encountered this yet been a safari guide from through the Eastern and Southern and central African region since 2000.
As above Carlos – think it is masked in wild populations, and has only emerged where persecuted/ fragmented etc. No one has ever seen in Kruger, and large game reserve areas, so can guess it emerges when population goes through bottle-neck – this is the running hypothesis at present.. It seems localised in a few provinces of SA at present…