Folks Are Saying There’s A Leopard In This Picture But We Can’t Find It
When I first saw this picture, I thought whoever came up with this challenge must have hit their head and started hallucinating. I mean, come on, how could there possibly be a leopard in this picture? I strained my eyes for minutes. I tried channeling my inner genius by checking out every nook and cranny of the photo using my unconscious “third eye.” I even rotated and tilted my laptop, thinking that the leopard must have been some sort of overlay or watermark. No dice. Folks are losing their minds over this adult-level “Where’s Waldo” picture that was originally shared by 16-year-old Bella Lack to her 150K followers.
On September 27, Bella shared the photo with the caption: “Someone just sent this to me and asked me to find the leopard. I was convinced it was a joke… until I found the leopard. Can you spot it?” since then, the post has gone viral with 9.1K in retweets, 5K in the comments, and 22.4K in likes. The leopard (if you believe it really exists) was captured by an eagle-eyed Indian photographer named Hemant Dabi. The picture appears to be a plain dry piece of land with lots of dirt, one tree, a ditch, but no sign of any kind of life to be found. Oh, but how wrong could 99 percent of those who looked at this photo and saw no leopard be? According to many, there is a very lively leopard sitting somewhere in the photo, probably camouflaging itself and stalking its unwitting prey.
Honestly, if anyone can spot the leopard in this photo, they must have superpowers. Because I, along with thousands of other people, have spent forever straining my eyes at this picture trying to figure out if there is some kind of inside joke I’m not getting. Maybe Bella wanted everyone who came to her thread to test their vision?
“PLEASE DON’T POST THE ANSWER so others can have a go. Thank you. :),” she wrote.
https://twitter.com/BellaLack/status/1177510650429374470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1177510650429374470%7Ctwgr%5E764724c43d0d9b91bf0830745ebced9dc1adbde2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffun.shared.com%2Ffolks-are-saying-theres-a-leopard-in-this-picture-but-we-cant-find-it%2F
However, folks who found the leopard could not keep it secret. And who could blame them, that bugger was hard to spot. It’s only natural for folks to want to cash in some on some well-earned bragging rights.
Folks started reposting the image all over her thread with red makers circling around the animal. Let that be a lesson, never ask folks on the internet not to do something.
For those who are ready to give up, here’s a link to the leopard.
— Momo. 🌼 (@AngelusofDeath) September 28, 2019
However, even after that, there were still people like myself, who had trouble spotting it. I was just about to call its quits when I zoomed in on the photo. And finally, it jumped out at me. I swear, if I had been walking in that area, I would have been a goner for sure! Due to the spotty appearance of the soil, the brown leopard had blend itself into the terrain so perfectly that it looks like a part of the ground.
“Someone please pm me the answer. I’m gonna go crazy if I stare at this dirt anymore,” one frustrated user wrote. I know that feeling all too well.
It turns out that leopards don’t have to change their appearance like chameleons to blend into their environment. They are among the most elusive and secretive of all the big cats, smart enough to find the perfect spots to match their unique spots. This particular leopard just found the right rocky terrain and plopped down to achieve automatic camouflage. Some folks claim that it’s actually a jaguar, but the animal isn’t muscular, nor does it have the characteristic jaguar dot in the center of its spots.
Leopards are common in South Africa and are scattered around Asia. In recent times, many of the leopard populations have become critically endangered, especially outside of Africa. It seems that leopard skin is incredibly valuable and sells at high prices on black markets all over the world. Poaching, habitat loss, as well as human pressures, are just some of the serious problems affecting the global survival of this majestic Panthera species.
Bella calls on wildlife lovers to visit the Born Free Foundation website to adopt a leopard in danger. Born Free is a British non-profit organization that “works to protect leopards from the threats they face, both in the wild and in captivity, rescue individual leopards from suffering and exploitation, and provide them with lifetime care.”
