How the leopard changed its spots: It’s all down to a simple camera trick

A simple camera trick has helped scientists illuminate the usually undetectable spots on black leopards – and it will help them keep the species alive. Experts studying leopards in Malaysia, where most of the big cats are jet black, were struggling to tell the animals apart. But photographs taken with the infrared flash firing on automatic cameras stationed in the forest clearly show the animals’ complex whirls of 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,” said William Laurance from Australia’s James Cook University.

Because the spots are unique, you can tell them all apart

Researcher William Laurance

It is not known why the leopards in this part of the world are mostly black, but Laurance said it was likely to better camouflage the animals in the dark rainforest. But using the method in the north-east of peninsular Malaysia had allowed them to accurately identify 94% of black leopards – a boost for conservation efforts. “It’s basic, it’s fundamental for trying to say things like how big is the population,” Laurance said. “Otherwise you are simply just looking at these photos and you can’t tell anything apart and it’s really difficult to make any inference about population abundance, about population trends, about the impacts of different kinds of things over time.”

This will allow us to study and monitor this population over time, which is critical for its conservation

JCU’s Gopalasamy Reuben Clements

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