A few days ago, the image of a black panther and a leopard roaming together in the forests of Kabini, Karnataka became viral on social media. This was shared by a wildlife photographer called Mithun H on Instagram, and immediately grabbed eyeballs.
A similar picture had been shared by Indian natural and wildlife photographer Shaaz Jung, on Twitter under an album titled ‘Earth’ in 2019, as reported by News18. This had been in the manner that the panther was seen peeping atnd the camera from behind a tree. It looks so realistic that people even wondered if it was real, while some others said it looked like Bagheera from Jungle Book. In a similar manner, Mithun H has shared the same panther’s photos on Instagram but it was found to be with a leopard this time. He called the panther, ‘Saaya’, and the leopard, Cleopatra.
“Usually in the courting pairs generally it is the Male who takes charge and moves around with the female following close behind. But with this couple, it was definitely Cleo who was in charge while the Panther followed,” Mithun wrote on Instagram. He claims that this leopard and panther have been courting each other for the past four years.
This unlikely pair has garnered a lot of views online and reaffirmed the fact that love is love even in the animal kingdom.