Rare wildlife sightings across Maharashtra: Genetic phenomena or deeper malaise?

As many as three recent sightings of rare wild animals across vastly different ecosystems of the state have created both excitement and uneasiness in the wildlife conservation community.

- Gayatri Vajpeyee

PUNE:

While the sightings of a melanistic (dark pigmentation) Indian wild dog (Dhole) near the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, a black Indian jackal in Baramati's grasslands, and a leucistic (reduced pigmentation/white) leopard cub in Ratnagiri's forests are being hailed as rare genetic phenomena, experts warn that these anomalies could point to deeper maladies of ecological stress, shrinking gene pools and hybridization risks in India's shape-shifting wild zones.

The most striking of these sightings is that of a black Dhole or Indian wild dog, recorded by a tourist near a village bordering the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve on May 7, 2025. Verified by forest officials by June 15, this is believed to be the first videographic/photographic evidence of melanism in Dholes in India in nearly 90 years. The only recorded case prior to this is in 1936 when Scottish naturalist R C Morris documented a black Dhole in the forests of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. Dholes are normally reddish-brown in color and known for their complex pack dynamics, speed, and cooperative hunting abilities.

"That such a rare genetic mutation surfaced in the buffer zone of a forest reserve has sparked curiosity among researchers, with forest department officials too installing trap cameras in the area," said Amit Bhise, assistant conservator of forests, Sahyadri Tiger Reserve.