Three photographs featuring black lions have been widely shared on social networks since 2013 and commented on in several languages. But these pictures are clear fakes: they have been photoshopped to change the felines’ colour. A renowned researcher in endangered species has confirmed to AFP that black lions don’t exist, one of several wildlife experts to bust the claims.

On September 23, Famous Africa Buzz, a Cameroonian Facebook page with nearly 50,000 followers, posted two photographs purporting to show black lions with the caption: “A black lion, very rare… share with others.”

​“It’s fake news. Black lions have never existed,” award-winning Mexican biologist Gerard Ceballos told AFP in September. Ceballos has won 22 prizes for his scientific research and works as an expert for endangered species at the University of Mexico in Mexico City.

The picture you see up top is photoshopped, but could there actually be a black lion? Well, after bathing in mud, a lion’s fur will be soaked in blackish dirt that will make it’s fur black. This effect only lasts one hour, then the fur is normal color. Leopards and Jaguars can have a deformality that will make their fur black.

This could be mistaken for a black lion if not looked at carefully. When the sun is going down, and pointing directly at an object, you will only see the objects dark silhouette. A lion’s dark silhouette makes it clearly the color black until the sun points in a different direction, again, that could make the lion easily be mistaken for a black lion.

But is there a chance that their could be a lion that was actually and permanently black? Maybe, as a lot of the lion’s relatives can be irregularly black, so there’s no reason a lion cannot be, though there has never been an actual black lion seen in real life.