While these big cats are well-known in popular culture, they are extraordinarily rare due to poachers and habitat loss. The melanistic leopard has been dubbed Bagheera after the Jungle Book character and was seen in a park that calls itself the “Land of the Mowgli,” the Pench National Park. 

It’s the go-to name whenever these cats appear, it seems. In 2020, another black leopard, compared to Bagheera, went viral in the same park after a tourist caught the cat on video. 

Photographer Haritri Goswami captured this “Bagheera,” a stunning young female, as she climbed a tree in August. Instagram/glimpseofnature_ Instagram/glimpseofnature_ According to the Daily Mail, some scientists suggest the rare fur coloration could be an evolutionary response as the cats hunt at night. Or perhaps, to avoid the constant threat from poachers? 

They point to sightings of black leopards in Africa and Asia and black tigers in India’s Nandankanan National Park. We previously shared a story about a rare black leopard in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya. 

It was the first time one was seen in over a century. Video by Haritri Goswami:

 
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