Wildlife Photographer Captures First-Ever Video Of Rare ‘Ghost’ Cat

Spanish wildlife photographer Ángel Hidalgo is used to photographing uncommon animals. He typically takes footage and movies of Iberian lynxes, who’re thought-about to be a few of the world’s most elusive cats.

But earlier this yr, Hidalgo was checking his path cameras when he noticed one thing that totally shocked him. He noticed an Iberian lynx … whose fur was fully white.

Hidalgo didn’t get a transparent have a look at the lynx, so he wasn’t positive if he might belief what he’d seen. But for months, it was all he might take into consideration. He devoted all his time to attempting to see the animal along with his personal eyes. Last week, he lastly did.

“One morning, after a night of rain, I was walking as I had done so many times before when suddenly, in the distance, I saw a white shape that seemed to radiate its own light,” Hidalgo wrote on Instagram.

Hidalgo was floored. He watched quietly because the lynx appeared to stare again at him, blinking slowly.

“Upon seeing for the first time a white Iberian lynx, with its snow-white winter coat and those piercing eyes, I was paralyzed; I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Hidalgo wrote.

Hidalgo’s pictures and movies mark the primary time a white Iberian lynx has ever been caught on digital camera. The cat is taken into account leucistic, not albino, indicating a partial lack of pigmentation. Hidalgo has been retaining the lynx’s location a secret to make sure nobody harms the uncommon animal.

Iberian lynxes, endemic to southwestern Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, are recognized for the beard-like tufts of fur they’ve below their chins. Twenty years in the past, their inhabitants fell to under 100 they usually have been on the point of extinction. But due to intensive conservation efforts, Iberian lynx numbers have been steadily rising.

“Encountering this feline was an unforgettable moment for me, and it made me reflect on the importance of nature and conservation,” Hidalgo wrote.

Hidalgo’s pictures of the Iberian lynx have been capturing the imaginations of individuals on-line from everywhere in the world. The cat’s surreal look and calm demeanor have led folks to match the animal to an otherworldly creature or spirit.

“Looks absolutely mythical,” Michael Bradshaw wrote on X.

“A divine omen,” another X user wrote.

While Hidalgo could by no means see the leucistic lynx once more, he’ll always remember his encounter with who he calls “[t]he white ghost of the Mediterranean forest.”