The term “black panther” is really a melanistic jaguar or leopard. The melanistic coloration, or black variant, is an increased amount of dark pigmentation in their fur (Jennings & Pratt-Begstrom, 2018). There are 13 cat species that have this melanistic genetic variant (Parham, 2017).
In leopards the melanistic (black) gene is recessive while the normal golden color gene is dominant, but in jaguars the melanistic gene is dominant (Zaccaria, 2019). Just because the gene is dominant does not mean the frequency of melanistic jaguars is increased (Zaccaria, 2019). Researchers believe that only about 10% of both leopard and jaguar populations have melanistic cats (Zaccaria, 2019). Although they are all black they still have rosettes, that can be seen if the sunlight hits their coat just right (Turner, 1997). With their rosettes still being visible in the right light, it indicates that there are different molecular mechanisms that code for melanism versus coat patterns, in cat species (Zaccaria, 2019).
Below is a video of the black mother leopard and her two cubs.
Check out our earlier blog: Melanistic Cats - Happy Halloween to learn more about melanistic cats.
Literature Cited:
Jennings, C. & Pratt-Bergstrom, B. (2018, May 18). Are there really black panthers? National Wildlife Federations’s Blog. https://blog.nwf.org/2018/05/excited-about-black-panther-are-we/
Parham, D. (2017, December 18). She’s mysterious, magnificent, and melanistic. Meet Mystique, one of the zoo’s newest endangered Amur leopards. ZooNooz. https://zoonooz.sandiegozoo.org/zoonooz/black-beauty/
San Diego Zoo. (2019, May 27). Rare black leopard mother and cubs spotted in Kenya [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_AEK8tT-Ow&feature=emb_logo
Turner, A. (1997). The big cats and their fossil relatives (1st ed.). New York: Columbia
University Press.
Zaccaria, J. (2019, October 28). Wild cats 101: Black cats and more on melanism. Panthera. https://www.panthera.org/blog/2019/10/22/wild-cats-101-black-cats-and-more-melanism
Comentários