New record of strawberry leopard (Panthera pardus) in Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania

Abstract

Strawberry or red leopards are a rare colour morph of leopard (Panthera pardus) characterised by spot markings that are red or brown instead of black, thought to be a result of a mutation in the tyrosinase-related protein (TYRP1) gene. We report the first record of this phenotype on the African continent outside of South Africa, from Selous Game Reserve in southern Tanzania. One female leopard with strawberry colouration was documented out of 373 individual leopards (0.3%) identified through camera trap surveys conducted from 2020 to 2022 over a combined area of more than 4600 km² in the Nyerere-Selous landscape.

Keywords: African leopard; Miombo woodland; Nyerere‐Selous ecosystem; Panthera pardus; colour morph; phenotype.

FIGURE 1

Left: location of strawberry leopard records from Africa (Pirie et al., ; Tensen et al., 2022). Right: map of the study area and camera trap survey grids, showing the location of the strawberry leopard in Selous GR.

FIGURE 2

All seven photos of the strawberry leopard from five capture events in the Kingupira sector of Selous GR.

FIGURE 3

Photos of the strawberry leopard in Selous GR (left) next to a normal phenotype leopard (right), for comparison. Top: captured at the same camera, walking right in the same position; middle: captured at the same camera, walking left in the same position; and bottom: daytime photos from different cameras.

FIGURE 4

Close‐up photos of features of the strawberry leopard (left) next to those of normal phenotype female leopards (right). Top: right side of the face; upper middle: back of the head and ears; lower middle: left flank; and bottom: underside of the paw. Note the lack of black pigmentation around the mouth, on the backs of the ears, and in the fur around the paw pads.