In recent days two glorified pictures of a black lion are doing the rounds on almost each and every social networking website.

I also got attracted to the pictures because they were uploaded with a caption: “Only one black lion left in the world.”

But reality is a bit different. According to mainstream zoology, black lions simply do not exist. If they did, and were wholly black in colour, they would most probably be melanistic specimens, i.e. increased amount of dark pigments in the body. So, basically the photographs that have been circulating online are not a major discovery, they are nothing more than photo - shopped images.

But what about real black lions? People have reported some sightings from different parts of the world but nothing has been confirmed till date. Researchers still believe that no such creature subsists in the world.

SANA MALIK Karachi