LONDON (Reuters) - A rare black African leopard has been photographed in Kenya, the first recorded verifiable record of that animal in nearly 100 years, researchers said on Monday.
British wildlife photographer Will Pourard Lucas has confirmed motion-sensitive cameras to take pictures of the animal that is most active at night in the wild Laekipia camp in January.
"I can put a light like that used in a studio and leave the cameras set for weeks or months," he said.
The black panthers carry a genetic mutation that makes their fur black, but the infrared cameras used by Bordard Lucas can detect the spots they cover.
As he was taking steady shots, researchers at San Diego Zoo Global, studying the area's fowl, installed video cameras nearby and published their findings in the African Journal of Ecology.
"These images together are the first confirmed images of nearly 100 years of black leopard in Africa," said Nicholas Belvedold of the San Diego team and chief researcher of the Lepidoptera Conservation Program in Laekepia County.
The scientists assumed that black fur developed an event for phytes as they emerged from thick forests where spots helped them hide, the San Diego Zoo said in a statement. But the discovery of Fahad Aswad in an open arid environment in Kenya raises doubts about the theory.