TIL that black panthers aren’t a distinct species - they are jaguars or leopards with “melanism”, the opposite of albinism
The trait is caused by a recessive allele in the leopard, and a dominant allele in the jaguar.
You can see their spots in the sun
Thanks! I even had a black house cat that had spots in the sun
Aggg I just wanna scritch that butt!
Also called sunspots, caused by the panther's magnetic flux.
Do they get worse every 11 years?
The Jaguar has a scientific name: the Panthera onca
\
Originally, the jaguar inhabited from northern Argentine Patagonia to the southern United States. The threats affecting the feline include deforestation and habitat loss, hunting, and jaguar and other animal roadkill.
Due to its wide geographical distribution, the same species is called by various names depending on the culture and region it inhabited: jaguar, el pintado, onça pintada, nahuel, American tiger, jaguar, balam, otorongo, among others.
I thought it was called revitiligo.
My university's mascot was a panther. And while I was on student government we tried to pass a resolution that basically said that because we were at an institute of higher learning we shouldn't have a mascot that empirically doesn't exist.
It didn't get passed.
What's funnier to me is that they changed their mascot to essentially be a mountain lion. We have absolutely zero mountains anywhere near us.
Mountain lion only describes one type of habitat cougars live in, they have the widest distribution of all the big cats and live in a variety of habitats, including the Everglades swamp in Florida, in canyons, and in areas with a lot of scrubby brush they can ambush from.
Coney Island cougars are pretty chill if you give em a chopped cheese and a Newport
For anyone else interested, melanism does not exist in humans. So no...
Can a panther be born from two black panthers and not be black? I don't know about their habits, do they have prides and would that pride end up with mixed black panthers, Leopards, Jaguars in it? or do these get kicked out?
Lions are the only big cats that form prides (and interestingly have never been observed with melanism IIRC), other big cats are solitary except for the first year or two of their lives while learning from their mother. After they reach adulthood they’re all kicked out of mom’s territory. But within that one litter you can definitely have some spotted and some all black!
Can a panther be born from two black panthers and not be black?
Based on my rudimentary high-school knowledge of alleles, the answer would be “yes” for some jaguar pairings, with a 25% chance of getting a regular jaguar in those pairings. It wouldn’t be possible for leopards.
I’m not an expert though so if I’m wrong feel free to correct me
I alredy knew that
I bet you're no fun at parties
Certainly not
why do we say "black panther" if panthers are always black?
I guess because one is Pink
I think the mountain lion / cougar is sometimes called a panther, too. Like the Florida panther.
The word is a little bit like raptor is used for some birds. It means big cat.
I've only ever called them Panthers. Black Panthers are a social/political group.
And a superhero
Got a link?
No. Wrong again. FFS. Do your research. Panthers are “a large wild cat, especially a leopard or jaguar, in a color form with black fur”