The elusive Black Leopard
A ‘normal’ leopard in Kafue National Park, Zambia
Africa is blessed with an astonishingly rich and varied wildlife, with many magnificent animals. It is a privilege and joy to observe and photograph any of them. But one animal is a clear favourite: The African Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus).
This powerful cat is an impressive predator. Its beautiful coat, spotted with rosettes, works as an effective camouflage as it hunts for primates, deer and other animals. Indeed, the diet is highly adaptable from beetles to large antelopes. It is an opportunistic hunter and prefers to stalk its prey under the cover of darkness. Leopards are less active during the day.
A dawn feast - a leopard in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, with its impala kill
Due to habitat loss and fragmentation the leopard is listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN’s Red List of threatened species. It is mostly found in sub-Saharan Africa and is highly adaptable, living in a wide range of habitats, including grasslands, the savannah, mountain forests and jungle.
Most leopards have a pale yellow or deep gold coat with black rosette patterns. However, there is one type of leopard that is significantly rarer – the Black Leopard (also called a Black Panther). These highly elusive leopards have a melanistic colour variance and are almost entirely black due to excessive black pigment.
A male leopard resting in a tree during the day - South Luangwa National Park, Zambia
Getting close to and observing any leopard in the wild is tricky even for experienced spotters. They are shy and solitary creatures more active during the dark than the day. Spotting a black leopard is even harder as there are so few of them. Before a confirmed photo sighting in Kenya in 2019, it was 110 years ago since the previously confirmed photographic sighting in Africa! That’s right, all the way back in 1909! These black leopards have a mystical reputation as they are so rarely seen. They are hard to detect as they blend into the shadows and are near invisible.
Another rare leopard sighting: Mating leopards in Kafue National Park, Zambia
That’s why when I had an opportunity to go looking for these rare leopards, I jumped at it. Cue a flight to the Laikipia region of Kenya. Embarking from the Twin Otter at the bush airstrip we were met by Dan Peel, a highly experienced guide, ranger and photographer. Dan had spotted a black leopard in Laikipia a couple of years earlier - a young female they named Giza Mrembo (Swahili for ‘the beautiful darkness’) - and he was going to help us try to find it. Dan was at pains to explain the long odds and the likelihood we would be disappointed. They had not seen Giza for over 6 weeks. With the low expectations set we started our 5-day stay in Laikipia …
Breakfast before pulling the dead impala up the tree to secure it for a later meal - South Luangwa, Zambia
Day 1 – no sighting. Day 2 – no sighting. Day 3 – still no sighting. Day 4 - no luck that day either. You may think we were despondent? Not really, although we were itching to photograph the black panther, we weren’t exactly spoilt for photo opportunities in this beautiful wilderness. The area is rich in wildlife. We spent hours photographing elephants, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, ‘normal’ leopards ;-) and a whole host of other animals, including a stunningly rich array of bird species. With or without a black leopard, this is a wildlife photographer’s heaven. But … it was niggling that we hadn’t had a sniff of Giza. I cannot deny that. 4 days down and only one to go …
A leopard protecting its kill - a lechwe antilope. Kafue, Zambia
Then on our last evening one of Dan’s spotters thought he saw the black leopard jumping into a large dense bush in the middle of the savannah. He was far from certain, but it was all we had to go on. Mid-afternoon we jumped in the 4x4 and headed for the thickets which might or might not be the hiding place for this elusive black panther. Parking the vehicle 40-odd yards away from an incredibly dense bush, we prepared cameras and waited. There was no visible indication of the possible leopard. After a couple of hours of zero movement or activity, merely a dense thicket to look at, Dan heard something we didn’t. He could detect a faint gnawing sound which suggested a leopard was indeed inside the bush and feeding on a kill – most likely a Dik Dik – a tiny African antelope.
And suddenly after 4 hours wait, Giza - a female black leopard - stepped out of a bush in front of us in the darkness
Shot at 200mm @ f/2.8, 1/250s, ISO 8000
If anything was going to happen it would probably not be before sunset as that is when the leopard was most likely to become active and start hunting. We couldn’t risk leaving the site and another two hours passed until the sun settled. The Laikipia sunset was again extraordinarily beautiful although somewhat lost on us as we kept staring at a bush in the fading light.
And then it suddenly happened as darkness fell. There indeed was a leopard in that bush! Giza jumped out into the open, looked around and walked silently towards us. Just incredible. This powerful and elegant creature strode past the 4x4, totally ignoring us, before quickly disappearing into the darkness not to be seen again. After four hours of waiting we had 90 seconds with Giza. Wow! A once-in-a-lifetime experience.
She crossed diagonally in front of us, lit by a soft torch from the 4×4. An incredible moment.
Shot at 200mm @ f/2.8, 1/250s, ISO 8000
Witnessing this black leopard was incredible, but what about the photography? It was easy to forget the camera in that fleeting moment of magic. Photographing a black leopard in the darkness is also not particularly easy – the camera’s sensor struggles to capture enough light in such conditions. Dan’s spotter had a soft hand torch which he expertly used to provide some light for photography. The soft spotlight provided weak and highly uneven cover particularly as the light was not pointing directly at the animal to avoid discomforting her.
The leopard started to move faster as she closed in on the 4×4.
Shot at 200mm @ f/2.8, 1/320s, ISO 20000
My lens was wide open at f/2.8 to gather as much of the little light as possible. The camera was set to Auto-ISO so I could focus on optimising shutter speed. I dialled in a negative EV compensation of minus 2 to avoid the areas were the torch light hit being bleached out completely. I figured it was better to lose shadow detail than clipping the highlights. It was a split-second decision and almost the right one. In retrospect, -1.3 EV would probably have worked as the torch light was not as strong as I suspected.
Giza passed right by the 4×4 - such a powerful and magnificent creature. Note the faint rosette spots on her dark body.
Shot at 105mm @ f/2.8, 1/320s, ISO 25600
The last thing I wanted was to come home with blurry images as the opportunity to photograph a black panther again is most likely just a dream. With so little light to work with, a fast shutter speed to freeze the action meant that the ISO would go through the roof, so I had to be careful. I wanted to be as conservative as I could to secure a sharp image, but I also needed to control the ISO setting as much as possible. I started with a shutter speed of 1/250s as the leopard was coming toward us, then increased it to 1/320s as Giza passed by the side of the 4x4. The resulting very high ISO numbers were unavoidable in these conditions. The images required quite a bit of work in post processing to deal with the high levels of noise and the uneven exposure.
Incredibly tricky shooting conditions with little light to play with.
Shot at 105mm @ f/2.8, 1/320s, ISO 22800
During those 90 seconds a lot of photography thought processing takes place in short order. Hesitate and you miss it! This is when practise and muscle memory kicks in. Knowing your camera, its configuration and controls is absolutely key to capture such critical moments. Did I succeed? In the circumstances I am quite satisfied with the resulting images. Could they have been better? Probably. Both EV setting and shutter speed could have been optimised further, which would have made a difference, but ultimately the lack of light was such a limiting factor. Ideally, Giza would have appeared from the bush before sunset or made repeat appearances … but such is wildlife ;-) Am I happy? You bet. That was a truly once-in-a-lifetime moment of pure joy! Godspeed Giza!
And as fast as she had appeared, she was gone! 90 seconds was all we had with Giza, but it was magical!
Shot at 105mm @ f/2.8, 1/320s, ISO 25600
And thank you Dan. See Dan Peel’s website here: www.danpeelphotography.com