Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca)

[Spalea]

Shaaz Jung: " An eerie glow of first light hangs between the trees, silhouettes of branches dance without their leaves, wicked is the wind that waltzes thick as thieves, frigid is the mist for in it something breathes.

This image does absolutely no justice to what we had witnessed that morning. We drove out at first light and watched darkness lift to reveal nothing but ambiguous shapes in the thick mist. We parked ourselves under the old Banyan, where he was seen the day before. The silence was deafening and dawn was like the dead of night. No songbirds sang, no crickets hummed yet there was an eerie sensation of being watched. Spending years on the same track, tracking the same animals, strengthens your intuition and within minutes a ghostly figure slowly took shape on the road ahead. It drifted by us in absolute silence and was by far my most chilling experience with the black panther.
View my story for the BTS video. At this point, the light was far better but the image above was shot in extremely low light. I’ve played around with it in post to revive some light but kept it dark to try and retain some of it’s original vibe. ."

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