“Red” leopard image provides more evidence
He said that the irony in the scarcity of the red leopards is that no photographic images of the black leopard have recently been supplied. “It is supposedly rarer than the black, but the red leopard has now been photographed, as well as the one that was run over in 2013."
LYDENBURG – Phenomenal images of a “red” or erythristic leopard in the area was recently provided to Mr Gerrie Camacho, local predator expert of the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA).
In March 2013 the newspaper also reported on another red female leopard that was killed on the Sekhukhune road. These leopards carry a very rare erythristic mutation causing a reddish pigmentation of its fur and skin. Camacho said that there is a seemingly healthy population of normal-coloured leopard in the region. “I won’t say that a seemingly healthy population indicates three mutations, but more likely something that has happened in the past, maybe indicating some inbreeding depression, allowing the recessive genes to become more prevalent.”
He said what is very rare in the red leopard’s case is both factors contributing to the condition, the absence of black and the abundance of red, are visible. This could not be linked to albinism which is a congenital disorder characterised by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to the absence of melanin.”
These leopards’ genetic mutation is so extraordinary that its appearance is even scarcer than the African Black Leopard that was spotted in the mountains behind Sabie in 1952 for the first known reported time. There have been numerous reports of the mystical “black leopard’ since then and up to date. The first account of the African “Red Leopard” was made in 2002 when the late Mr Gert and his wife Liesbeth Stolz told Camacho about a sighting of what he called an “orange” leopard.
“This male is about 20-22 months old. The questions we need to ask about this mutation are why these red and black genes are suddenly popping up. The leopard photographed here seems quite relaxed. The fact that individuals showing a more relaxed nature, could be contributed to historical conflict between livestock owners and leopards per say. Relaxed animals might have been exterminated more easily because of this relaxed nature. With the sudden awareness of this majestic cat and with stricter laws in place and numerous other factors, the persecution levels, from a killing of relaxed individuals might have decreased, allowing the relaxed gene to become more prevalent again. Thus, historically the wary leopard’s mating brought about a super shy population of leopards. Interesting enough, this leopard could have both the erythristic and relaxed gene, which could increase the chances of it being shot and killed. Luckily the area where it has been sighted is where people are very conservation orientated.”
Camacho said that he wants to get a research team to start a study on this leopard and the area as soon as possible. “I have a theory about why these genes are suddenly appearing. I suspect it is because of a bottle neck effect of these leopards carrying this specific gene. To establish this theory, we have to test the relationship between these genes in the population of individual leopards in the area in order to find out why these animals carrying this gene are suddenly being seen here.”
He said that the irony in the scarcity of the red leopards is that no photographic images of the black leopard have recently been supplied. “It is supposedly rarer than the black, but the red leopard has now been photographed, as well as the one that was run over in 2013. Thus there is more physical evidence of the red leopard. It is definitely unlikely that this could be the cub of the one killed by the car. This could quite possibly be a local gene.”
Interesting enough, about 20 months ago, in the same region, a picture was taken of a female leopard with three cubs, one which resembled a red pigmentation. According to Camacho, this could very well be the same cub spotted then. “I suspect that it could be the same red cub that has now grown up. I thank the people from this area for their support and enthusiasm regarding these charismatic animals that is still freely roaming our area.”
