Black Leopard: Scientists Found Out Animal Actually Has Spots

Through an infrared camera, scientists found out that black leopards in Malaysia actually have spots. Due to their similar physical appearances, these big cats had been very difficult to track, making it a hard task for people to identify their population.

Huffington Post reports a research group from James Cook University in Australia used a nighttime infrared flash on an automatic camera that was able to capture the leopards' spots.

"It was really by accident that we discovered that if you can get that infrared flash to go off in the daytime, you could suddenly see the spots," one of the researchers, William Laurance told Agence France-Presse.

In Malaysia, a distinctive type of leopard populates the jungles in the peninsula. Although most leopards are identified with lighter coats and spotted patterns, the same kind of species found in Asian countries acquired melanism, which explains their black coloring.

"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," co-author, Gopalasamy Reuben Clements told LiveScience in an email.

Spots on these big black cats could not be seen by human eyes, hence the need to use this infrared technology to identify individual species.

"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," Clements explained.

"We found we could accurately identify 94 percent of the animals," added Clements, who also co-founded Rimba, a Malaysian jungle conservation organization. "This will allow us to study and monitor this population over time, which is critical for its conservation."

According to researchers, there are most-likely three leopards in every 38-6 square miles in the northeastern part of Malaysia. Aside from the Malay Peninsula, leopards also live in Thailand and southern parts of Myanmar.

This discovery was published in the Journal of Wildlife Management's July issue.