Will Burrard-Lucas - The Black Leopard: My Quest to Photograph One of Africa’s Most Elusive Big Cats

Dawn flight over Rhino Valley, Tsavo West National Park, Kenya, August 2017.

A black leopard at night in Laikipia County, Kenya, July 2019.

FOR PRIMROSE AND BENJAMIN

First published in the United States of America in 2021 by Chronicle Books LLC.

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The silhouette of the black leopard passes in front of the rocks. Its movement is the unmistakable feline slink of a cat that wishes not to be seen. The creature melts away into the undergrowth and I am left all alone.

Kenya, April 2019

The night is black. Clouds blot out the stars and the air is thick with the promise of rain. The monotonous drone of crickets is occasionally punctuated by the eerie alarm call of a rock hyrax.

I turn off my headlamp, plunging everything into total darkness. A move in the wrong direction and I would tumble down a sheer rock face into a jumble of boulders and knotted vegetation. I take a step forward and there is a muffled click and a flash of light as the motion sensor detects me and triggers my camera. I stand still for half a minute, letting the African night envelop me. I feel far removed from the rest of the world.

The camera shutter clicks again as it closes. I turn my light back on and circle round behind the camera trap to review the image. Theres a picture of me on the back of the camera, perfectly lit as if I were standing in a photographers studio. Now I just have to wait for the elusive creature to pass this spot, preferably on a clear night when the long exposure will reveal the stars in the sky.

I have a nagging feeling that this ultimate image might never materialize. In the early days of the project, I was capturing photographs of the animal almost every week, but that was during the dry season, when its movements were constrained by the availability of water. The first rain fell four weeks ago, heralding the onset of the wet season, and since then the animal has vanished. Perhaps it has moved territory for good? At least I am still capturing images of other creatures, such as the beautiful spotty leopard that passed by last night.

I close up the camera housing and turn to leave. As my headlamp flashes across a rock, there is a glimmer of reflected light.