Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 108, December 2013, pp. 26-42. | Page 4

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leopard was reported in April 2012 in South Africa's Madikwe Game Reserve.
The male leopard, dubbed a strawberry leopard had a golden background with
red spots and had been spotted by a number of tourists in the game reserve.
Erythrism occurs when normal black pigments are not produced and red
pigment is produced instead. This is possibly the result of the non-extension
gene which is believed to be responsible for red leopards (black leopards where
red had replaced the black colouration) and which is also seen in domestic cats.
The red spotted coat still provides some camouflage (especially at dusk or nighttime) and the "strawberry leopard" appears to be healthy and successful, but
there is a fear that he could stray from the Madikwe Reserve into neighbouring
game farms where he could be targeted by trophy hunters seeking a novelty?.

Red leopard or fading specimen? To the left is a melanistic leopard, to the right is a
melanistic jaguar (face only). The black pigment tends to fade, giving an impression of
reddish animals. The darker colour of the jaguar specimen may be due to the fact that
jaguar melanism is a dominant mutation while leopard melanism is a recessive mutation.
In other species, dominant black has been observed to fade less than recessive black. In
an erythristic individual, the black pigment is turned to red, possibly due to the recessive
form of the extension gene (red factor gene).
http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/mutant-leopards.html
Messybeast.com added: ?Assuming that not all red leopard specimens are due to
discolouration of black leopard taxidermy specimen, how common is the
mutation and what genes are involved? There seem to be fewer than 5 erythristic
leopards reliably reported so it would either be a rare spontaneous mutation or a
rare recessive gene. The most likely gene is the Extension gene which has been
identified in domestic cats (it is also called "red factor", "black modifier" and
"agouti modifier"). The dominant form of the gene allows normal expression of
black pigment, but if a cat inherits 2 copies of the recessive form (non-extension)
it produces red pigment instead of black. If a normal spotted leopard inherited 2
copies of the recessive non-extension form it would have reddish rosettes on a
normal background colour. If a black leopard inherited 2 copies of the recessive
non-extension form it would have deep reddish-brown spots on a reddish-brown
background, exactly what is reported for "red leopards". Black leopards occur
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 108 – December 2013