Rare black leopard settles into Exmoor Zoo

A rare black leopard has been settling into her new home at Exmoor Zoo.

Two-month-old Bagheera was born in France in May and came to Exmoor as part of the European breeding programme.

She replaces the zoo's previous black leopard, Zoysa, who died in 2022 and at the time was the last captive black leopard in the UK.

The zoo said it hoped to find a mate for Bagheera at some point in the future.

The zoo's collection manager, Danny Reynolds, said: "We would hope that Bagheera should live with us for the next 15 years or more."

Black leopards are termed melanistic with the leopard coat pattern still present underneath a black coat.

Mr Reynolds said: "If we can, we may try and find a normal coat coloured male companion from the Asiatic leopards in captivity.

"Leopards from the African continent are slightly different being much larger and tend not to have the recessive genes for the potential black appearance."

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