Kolkata: In a rare moment, two melanistic leopards have been clicked by a camera trap in N Bengal’s Kurseong forest division. Foresters claimed this will probably be the first time anywhere in the Indian wild that two black leopards have been spotted together. Over 20 trap cameras are now active in the division. Officials said not only melanistic leopards, the region had earlier reported presence of “black barking deer, black tarantula and even civet cat with black stripes”.DFO Devesh Pandey said the cameras have been laid to click photos and generate awareness among the people to conserve the animals with whom they share the landscape. “In one camera, two melanistic leopards have been clicked. It seems they are siblings. We will track them through trap cameras to find out more about them, particularly about their parents,” he added. According to Uma Ramakrishnan, an Indian molecular ecologist and professor at National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, in genetics, a phenotype is the set of observable characteristics, traits, or physical properties of an organism, such as appearance, development etc. “Here, the appearance is of a black leopard, which is caused by a genetic mutation. But there has to be two copies of the mutation, one from the mother and one from father,” she said.Asked about “frequent” appearance of melanism in animal/s in a particular population, Ramakrishnan said this needs extensive study. “Generally, if the frequency of the black mutation is low and there is a lot of gene flow — a lot of animal movement due to good forest connectivity — then you are unlikely to keep seeing black leopards. But, if the populations are slightly isolated then it is possible to have an increase in the frequency of black mutation. But, that needs to be studied,” she added. An Indian wildlife ecologist, who had worked in the dense tropical forests of North-East, said a study on habitat fragmentation can give some indications as a smaller gene pool due to poor connectivity between forests can lead to rise in frequency of this particular genetic mutation. On the “melanistic barking deer” earlier clicked in the region, she said it’s very likely to be a different species — the Gongshan muntjac, a species of muntjac living in the Gongshan mountains in northwestern Yunnan, southeast Tibet, NE India and northern Myanmar. Asked about studies on genetic mutations in black leopards, Ramakrishnan said an old study from SE Asia had identified a mutation in a gene called ASIP. “And, there’s another study from Sri Lanka, which identified a different mutation in the same gene. This gene is important for melanism and there are different mutations in the gene that can make it not work properly and as a result, you get this phenotype. To investigate this we need many black leopard samples. We have got some and may be, by end of this year, we will come out with a report,” she added. GFXA black leopard is a melanistic variant of the common leopardThey appear black due to a genetic mutation called melanismIf the frequency of the black mutation is low and there is a lot of gene flow, you are unlikely to keep seeing black leopardsIf the populations are slightly isolated then it is possible to have an increase in the frequency of black mutation“Black deer, black tarantula and black-striped civet” have also been seen in the Kurseong forest div
