A black leopard is one of the rarest sights but catching it on camera TWICE is nothing short of a miracle.
A 24-year-old Indian photographer was lucky last month to have filmed the rare sight of the melanistic leopard from a distance of 30 feet. Anurag Gawande captured the moment when he was on a safari at Tadoba National Park in Maharashtra last month.
In the video, the black cat can be seen crossing a track, before pausing, checking on left and right and staring into the cameras. Gawande said this was his second time watching the rare leopard, adding he still "felt the same thrill". Since this time the photographer was aware of the animal's movements, he said: "We kept our vehicle off and kept enough distance so that it will not move from the spot."
"It was surprising because we thought we would see a tiger but we saw black leopard strolling on the pathway," he was quoted as saying reports.
Gawande shared images of the same on his Instagram account.
Speaking to a TV channel, Gawande said he had been working in the field of wildlife for 3-4 years.
"I have photographed animals at Tadoba National Park, Pench National Park, Kanha Tiger Reserve, and Bandhavgarh National Park. But from last year I've been covering only Tadoba because of the black leopard," Gawande told Times Now. "It is the only black leopard of Tadoba national park."
Last year when Anurag saw the leopard for the first time, he was on a safari with his mother and brother. He referred to his experience as "unique" and “like finding a needle in a haystack”. He further wrote on his Instagram handle that he had experienced a lot of thrills but gave him “chills like this one”. He calls it, “ELUSIVE and EXCLUSIVE Melanistic Panther or Leopard”.
The photographer also said that when a human sees the leopard with "open eyes, you don’t see any spots – it looks totally black."
"Its coat was shining and even though the whole encounter lasted for about one minute, this leopard has given me the most iconic moment of my life," he said.