Black panther

A black panther is not a separate species but a melanistic (dark-pigmented) version of either a leopard or a jaguar. Both types have extra black pigment, yet their usual rosettes remain visible beneath it. These animals are most often found in tropical forests: black leopards live in Africa and Asia, while black jaguars inhabit Central and South America. In leopards, melanism comes from a recessive gene; in jaguars, it is caused by a dominant one.

Leopard

The first recorded black leopard in Europe was described in 1788 by Jean-Claude Delamétherie, kept in the Tower of London and originally from Bengal. Six years later, Friedrich Albrecht Anton Meyer gave it the scientific name Felis fusca, now recognized as the Indian leopard subspecies (P. p. fusca). In 1809, Georges Cuvier described another black leopard, this one from Java and housed in the Ménagerie du Jardin des plantes, naming it Felis melas (the Javan leopard, P. p. melas). By the late 1800s, Indian observers had repeatedly noted black and spotted cubs born in the same litter.

Black leopards were thought more common in Travancore and southern India’s hills than elsewhere in the country, and they were also frequently seen in southern Myanmar. By 1929, the Natural History Museum in London held skins from South Africa, Nepal, Assam, and Kanara in India. The Malay Peninsula and Java were considered strongholds for black leopards.

A black African leopard (P. p. pardus) was spotted in the alpine zone of Mount Kenya during the winter of 1989–1990. In Kenya’s Laikipia County, a camera trap captured one in 2007; in 2018, a subadult female black leopard was repeatedly recorded with a spotted leopard about 50 kilometers east in grassland. In India’s Western Ghats, black leopards were sighted and photographed in 2010 and 2012 at Kas Plateau Reserved Forest, and in 2012 at Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary.

A dead black leopard was found on a highway near Satara, Maharashtra, in 2015. In May 2012, a black leopard was photographed at 4,300 meters elevation in Nepal’s Kanchenjunga Conservation Area. In Thailand’s Kaeng Krachan National Park, a year-long camera trap survey from 2003 to 2004 captured at least one black leopard. By 2009, black leopards were photographed more often than spotted ones in Kui Buri National Park.

South of the Kra Isthmus, most leopards recorded at 16 sites between 1996 and 2009 were black, indicating melanism was nearly fixed in Peninsular Malaysia. In 2019, a black individual was photographed outside a protected area in Jeli District. Both black and spotted leopards were recorded in West Java’s Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park between 2005 and 2017.

Across the leopard’s range, melanism occurs at roughly 11 percent. Data show it appears in five wild subspecies: Indian, Javan, African, Indochinese (P. p. delacouri), and Sri Lankan (P. p. kotiya). Camera trap records indicate melanistic leopards are most common in tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests.

The trait is recessive. It is thought to offer a selective advantage in dense forests with lower light levels, and preliminary studies suggest it may be linked to beneficial immune system mutations. The typical spots and rosettes remain but are hidden by excess melanin. Because the taxonomic status of captive black leopards and the extent of hybridization with the Javan leopard are uncertain, coordinated breeding programs for black leopards do not exist in European and North American zoos. Black leopards occupy space needed for breeding endangered subspecies and are not included in the North American Species Survival Plan.

A black Amur leopard (P. p. orientalis) was exhibited at the San Diego Zoo in 2017. A pseudo-melanistic leopard has a normal background color, but its spots are denser than usual and merge to hide the golden-brown background. Any spots on the flanks and limbs that have not merged are unusually small and discrete, not forming rosettes; the face and underparts are paler and dappled like those of ordinary spotted leopards.

Jaguar

For jaguars, the first known description of a black individual came in 1801 from Félix de Azara, based on local reports near the Paraná River in Paraguay. In 2004, a female black jaguar was recorded in Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental. In 2009, a camera trap captured the first black jaguar photograph in Costa Rica’s Alberto Manuel Brenes Biological Reserve.

Black jaguars were recorded in Barbilla National Park in 2013. In the Cordillera de Talamanca mountains, 26 of 104 jaguar records between 2010 and 2019 showed melanistic individuals. In eastern Panama, black jaguars were repeatedly photographed in the Mamoní River Valley from 2016 to 2018, mostly in primary forest.

Between 2003 and 2018, five black jaguars were monitored in the várzea forest of Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in Brazil’s Amazonas state. Black jaguars were also recorded in Pará state, Brazil. Melanism in jaguars is caused by deletions in the melanocortin 1 receptor gene and is conferred by a dominant allele.

Cougar

No authenticated case of a truly melanistic cougar exists. No specimen has been photographed or killed in the wild, nor has one ever been bred in captivity. Unconfirmed sightings, often called the “North American black panther,” are attributed to misidentification by non-experts and to mimetic examples.