Up until this point in time, scientists and researchers assumed that black leopards all shared a sleek black coat. This made it very difficult to tell the individual animals apart. However, thanks to a new imaging technique that was discovered accidentally, the complex spots on black leopards can now be seen.
The Unintended Spotty Discovery
William Laurance, a researcher at James Cook University in Australia, says that they somehow managed to accidentally have the infrared flash that usually only operates at night go off during the day. This created the perfect situation that let the spots on the black leopards be seen. Though they still can’t be seen with the human eye, this provides an opportunity to learn more about black leopards by studying them more in-depth.
The Stealth Evolution of Black Leopards
Leopards can be found all across the world, more frequently than any other of the big cats. They are also able to thrive in different types of habitats. Most leopards have a lighter color of fur, with very distinctive and unique spots peppered all over their bodies.
The black leopards from Malaysia have developed melanism or the development of the skin to a much darker color. This is the opposite of albinism and, according to Gopalasamy Clements, a co-founder of the Malaysian jungle conservation called Rimba, this has let black leopards become the “perfect stalkers.” The darker skin hides the spots, and thus allows the animal to hide better in the dark and dimly-lit Malaysian jungles.
Benefits for Conversationalists
While it has been known that black leopards have spots, scientists have never been able to see them before. Without visible spots, black leopards had to be counted and recorded using less effective methods than the identification of each cat’s unique pattern of spots. Now that one of the black leopards can be photographed in the daylight with infrared flash to reveal its spots, the recording, tracking, and analyzation of these creatures’ habits will become so much easier.
One way that research will become easier and more effective is that since each leopard has its own unique spot pattern, researchers will now be able to account for information that was already recorded that would have skewed the data otherwise. This discovery is vital to having a more accurate representation of the black leopards in Malaysia as they are becoming rarer by the day.
