A Strawberry Leopard
I have never heard of one of these color mutations in a leopard before. How beautiful.
Andrew
8 Comments
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jeroen
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 -
Carlos Olaaka
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.
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Richard John Power
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…
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Miles Foster
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