black_panther_25

A black panther walking gracefully, looking directly at the viewer with big and green, expressive eyes.


A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (Panthera pardus) and the jaguar (Panthera onca). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been documented mostly in tropical forests, with black leopards in Africa and Asia, and black jaguars in Central and South America. Melanism is caused by a recessive allele in the leopard, and by a dominant allele in the jaguar.

black panther, colloquial term used to refer to large felines classified in the genus Panthera that are characterized by a coat of black fur or large concentrations of black spots set against a dark background. The term black panther is most frequently applied to black-coated leopards (Panthera pardus) of Africa and Asia and jaguars (P. onca) of Central and South America; black-furred variants of these species are also called black leopards and black jaguars, respectively. In addition, the term is sometimes used to describe dark-coloured bobcats, lynx, jaguarundis, tigers, and pumas (cougars), even though reports of black-coloured representatives of some species, such as the puma, have not been confirmed.