What we know as Black Panther is the fictional character of Bagheera, Mowgli’s friend in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. Younger people might associate Black Panther with the Marvel Cinematic Universe hero.
Recently, the breathtaking pictures of our own Bagheera were uploaded by a Twitter handle and the beauty of this big cat has fascinated Twitterati.
The images were uploaded by the official Twitter handle of earth.org. The spellbinding pictures are clicked by the wildlife photographer Shaaz Zung.
In these images clicked at Kabini region of Karnataka’s Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, Zung has beautifully captured the majestic beauty of the Black Panther. One can see the black panther roaming in the forest and peeping directly into the camera in these photos:
Check out images here:
The Instagram handle of the photographer has more pictures of the black beauty. Check out the images here:
The black panther or black leopard is a colour variant of the spotted Indian leopards. The leopard is the smallest of the big cats and known for its ability to adapt in a variety of habitats. Melanism is a common occurrence in leopards, wherein the entire skin of the animal is black in colour, including its spots. A melanistic leopard is often called black panther or jaguar and mistakenly thought to be a different species.
They are usually found in densely forested areas of South India and mostly in Karnataka.
In India, the leopard is listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Appendix I of CITES and also listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.
