Benjamin Luke
The Tailless Mystery
Tailless puma, Costa Rica, 2025
Category - Forests
High in Costa Rica’s cloud forests, this puma (Puma concolor) carries a rare and striking anomaly – it appears to have been born without a tail, likely the result of a genetic mutation. For a species in which the tail plays an important role in balance and communication, such a condition raises interesting questions about adaptability and survival. The image captures not only the raw power and presence of one of the Americas’ top predators, but also the hidden mysteries of evolution playing out in the wild, serving as a reminder of how much remains to be learned about the natural histories of even the most iconic species. Moments like this are exactly why The Wild Cat Imaging Project exists: to document these rare glimpses into lives of wild cats and deepen our understanding of the predators that shape these ecosystems.
HONOURABLE MENTION
14 mm f/2.8 Lens - 1/1 sec at f/8 ISO 400