A clever technique that can tell the black leopards of the Malay Peninsula apart -- by revealing the distinctive pattern of spots hiding under their black coats -- could help save the endangered species, researchers say.
Identifying individual animals has been difficult because their seemingly jet-black coats make them all look pretty much the same, but scientists have discovered that under that black fur they have spotted patterns just like all other leopards.
And now they've found a way to reveal those spots -- with a simple trick involving the cameras used in wildlife camera traps, they report in the Journal of Wildlife Management.
"Most automatic cameras have an infrared flash, but it's only activated at night," explains Gopalasamy Reuben Clements of James Cook University in Australia. "However, by blocking the camera's light sensor, we can fool the camera into thinking it's night even during the day, so it always flashes."
Photos taken using infrared flash revealed the hidden patterns of spots, because the longer wavelengths of infrared made the overlying black coat less opaque, the researchers say.
The new ability to differentiate individual animals will allow them to make estimations of the population size of the endangered species, they say, and track individual cats.
"This will allow us to study and monitor this population over time, which is critical for its conservation," Clements says.
Using the camera technique, they were able to identify 94 percent of the animals photographed by the camera traps, they say.
Being able to track individual animals is an important first step in preventing widespread poaching.
Skins and body parts from leopards are increasingly being found in wildlife trafficking operating in locations such as around the Myanmar-China border, the researchers say.
Tracking the big cats will help protect them from a number of human impacts, researchers say.
"Understanding how leopards are faring in an increasingly human-dominated world is vital," says study lead author Laurie Hedges, a zoologist at the University of Nottingham in England. "This new approach gives us a novel tool to help save this unique and endangered animal."
Leopards are the most widely disseminated of the world's big cats, found on almost every continent, but the all-black leopards of the Malaysian peninsula are very rare and their coloring makes them unique.
"This is perhaps the only known example of a wild mammal with virtually an entire population composed of black individuals," says Hedges.
Photo: Spencer Wright | Flickr
