BANGALORE: A rare sighting of a black panther was reported from Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve Safari on December 2 by a group of naturalists, including B B Mallesh, director of the reserve.
According to Mallesh, he was in the forest along with wildlife photographers Praveen Siddannavar, Mohan Thomas and Vijayan Thomas when they sighted the panther around 6pm.
Black panthers are commonly found in dense evergreen forests and low light forests. "Sighting a black panther is quite rare. Black panthers look like leopards, but without dots. They're listed as a threatened species by the IUCN," he said.
Very shy by nature, black panthers move during the nights and hunt small mammals like the chital, barking deer, mouse deer, hare and birds. They have sharp eyesight and sense of hearing. Poaching, loss of natural habitat, environmental degradation and construction of dams and roads are the primary reasons for them ending up as a critically threatened species.
Mallesh said very rarely are black panthers seen in the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve. The area is very dense and spread over 1303 sqkm, and home to tigers, leopards, elephants, gaurs and other herbivores.
The DCF said the reserve has a good number of black panthers distributed mainly in the evergreen forests of Anshi, Diggi, Kumbarwada, Castlerock, Kuveshi and in the dense forests of Gund, Pansoli, Ulvi, Kulgi and Nagazari valley of Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve. But they're very rarely spotted.
