Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca)

[Tshokwane]

Moinak Photography:
The ever elusive Black Leopard at Kabini. It was 6-35 am and light was not ideal to spot the black shiny animal. Since he was spotted a couple of times (but hardly any photographs as he was too shy and got down the tree superfast) in the S-Bend area, we thought of checking it on 10th September morning. The jeep before us actually couldn't spot it and started rolling forward. We came behind them and stopped for a while. Suddenly Abhi shouted "it's there"..and we all started raising our eyes and cameras at the same time towards the tree he was looking at. Initially I was drawing a blank and then saw a black silhouette turning on the branch and started climbing down tail first stealthily. Next few seconds were both active and blurry, literally...Pradosh, Abhi and I were trying our best to capture as many frames as possible while Vijay (naturalist) and Rajesh (driver) were chanting "take it sir..take it sir" in pure raw excitement of seeing the beautiful creature full frame in front of us..it was all over in exactly 7 seconds (I did check the details of my first and last frame). We did high-Fives and started checking our photos. Not so much of great news on that front..unfortunately both my friends with their 400mm and 500mm lenses just somehow missed to capture any steady shot. And as it happens in magic, when you are least expecting it, I with my 300mm could manage to capture 2 decent frames. But that's good enough for all of us...

*This image is copyright of its original author

Mainak Ray:
The Fearsome male leopard of kabini!

Moinak Photography | Kabini River Lodge

*This image is copyright of its original author

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