Pune-based photographer waited 2 hours for ‘perfect shot’ of rare semi-melanistic leopard

A first wildlife trip became a surreal experience for a 23-year-old Pune-based amateur photographer who ed a semi melanistic leopard after a two-hour-long wait at Maharashtra's Tadoba Reserve. The stunning photo of the gorgeous wild cat ed by Abhishek Pagnis went viral on the web within minutes of uploading.

"It was my first ever wildlife trip where we were looking mostly for tigers. We started looking for leopard on our last day of safari after having enough sighting of tigers," the photographer said.

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Pagnis shared that he waited for nearly two hours to get the 'perfect' shot, which was ed around 5 pm in the month of June. Before the rare leopard was sighted, he heard some alarming calls of animals in the wild, including deer and langurs.

"The leopard was behind the bushes drinking water. We had 20 minutes of decent sighting followed by almost 15 minutes of very good sighting for photography," he added.

Reacting to another photograph of a black panther which has created a stir on social media, Pagnis said, "That was a melanistic leopard, which is also known as a black panther and it was ed in Karnataka's Kabini forest. However, who I captured was a semi melanistic leopard which is different from the other."

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Photo of black panther and leopard goes viral

Last week, pictures of a black panther and leopard together in a forest in Karnataka had gone viral on social media. The Instagram bio of Mithun H, the photographer who ed the picture, says that he has worked on The Real Black Panther with Nat Geo Wild. He revealed in the caption that Black Panther and Leopard are tagged as 'the Eternal Couple'.

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The duo is named Saaya and Cleopatra. He further revealed that they have been together for 4 years now and stated that it is a 'sight to behold' when the two of them are seen together.

Mithun added that the forest beautifully comes alive when these two trot together in Kabini, Karnataka. He noted that usually in courtship couple, it is the male species that takes charge while the female species follows. He added that for Saaya and Cleo, it is definitely Cleo who takes charge and walks ahead while Saaya the Panther follows her. He further wrote, "This was shot on a surreal winter morning when a single Deer alarm led me to this breathtaking sight".

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