It turns out that while leopards cannot change their spots, rare species of black leopards in the Malay Peninsula are actually concealing them. Scientists have long marveled at black leopards. Because of their seemingly uniform coat, these animals are hard to track or tell apart. But a new study conducted at the James Cook University in Australia, researchers have discovered that black leopards have distinctive spots on their bodies.
Using the infrared setting on a camera, researchers saw that black leopards have two different colors of fur coat, with the other shade creating patters or spots that can only be seen with the modified camera setting.
"Because near-infrared light from our camera traps has a longer wavelength than ordinary light, eumelanin in the less heavily pigmented background of the fur coat appears less opaque when illuminated by infrared camera traps," said Gopolasamy Rueben Clements, the co-author of the study, via Live Science.
With this technique, scientists will now be able to identify the animals and study their activities in the wild.
"We found we could accurately identify 94 percent of the animals," Clements added in a statement. "This will allow us to study and monitor this population over time, which is critical for its conservation."
"Understanding how leopards are faring in an increasingly human-dominated world is vital," Laurie Hedges, another co-author of the study, said via Eurekalert. "This new approach gives us a novel tool to help save this unique and endangered animal."
Scientists still do not know why Malay leopards have black coats, although it is believed that these animals have evolved to better camouflage themselves. "This black coat may have made them 'perfect stalkers' in our dimly lit Malaysian jungle and this advantage may have helped them compete with tigers for similar-sized prey," Clements said.
Other assumptions indicate that black leopards may have been the only species of leopards that survived the eruption of Mount Toba 74,000 years ago.
Their findings have been published in the Journal of Wildlife Management.
