You’ve heard of the black panther—a melanistic version of typically rosette-covered, golden-furred leopard—but have you heard of a pink leopard? There haven’t been many sightings of rare “strawberry” leopards, but there have been a few encounters with these unusually beautiful creatures in countries like South Africa and India.
We still can’t get over a sighting from 2012 and a beautiful photo of a male strawberry leopard taken by Deon De Villiers. De Villiers is a safari guide and photographer based in South Africa.
National Geographic reported that tourists in South Africa’s Madikwe Game Reserve had seen the unique pink leopard before, but it wasn’t until De Villiers took a photo of the animal and sent it to some experts to learn more about the leopard’s coloration that they really understood how special the animal is.
It’s possible this pink leopard (and others like it) have erythrism, which causes abnormal redness in an animal’s fur, plumage, or skin.
In a throwback post, De Villiers said: “It’s been over seven years since this image and story broke the news, and word of this extraordinary Strawberry Leopard went viral. Since that, I have seen images of only three more individuals with this unique colour variation!”
One sighting in 2021 was in the Ranakpur region of India.
(Leopards live in both Africa and Asia. They’re similar to jaguars, which live in Central and South America, with some important differences.)
Check out De Villiers’s photo of a rare pink leopard in South Africa here:
How amazing would it be to see this animal or another like it in the wild?