The wild African black leopard is so rare that it’s become the stuff of myth and legend.

The leopard’s coat is black due to melanism (the opposite of albinism), a genetic anomaly that doesn’t occur very often in the species.

Now, for the first time, a British wildlife photographer has captured professional camera trap photos of a wild black leopard in Kenya.

The Guardian with the details:

Will Burrard-Lucas captured the images, which were released to the public on Monday, at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya after hearing reports of sightings in the area.

After meeting with locals who had seen the animals, and following leopard tracks, Burrard-Lucas set up a Camtraptions camera trap that included wireless motion sensors, in the hope of photographing the animals at night.

After a few days without success, he returned to the cameras to find some incredible pics.

“I had a quick look at the last trap, not expecting to find much,” Burrard-Lucas wrote on his blog.

“As I scrolled through the images on the back of the camera, I paused and peered at the photograph below in incomprehension … a pair of eyes surrounded by inky darkness … a black leopard! I couldn’t believe it and it took a few days before it sank in that I had achieved my dream.”

While there have been sightings and recorded reports of black leopards in Africa for over a century, this is only the second time that one has been recorded through photographic evidence.

The first was in 1909 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“We had always heard about black leopard living in this region,” Pilfold told USA Today. “Collectively these are the first confirmed images in nearly 100 years of a black leopard in Africa, and this region is the only known spot in all of Africa to have [the] black leopard.”

It is a beautiful creature.

For more amazing animal pics, check out these snaps from the Wildlife Photography Awards.

[source:guardian]