Panther Facts

Panther Profile

Melanistic cats have always inspired wonder. The witch’s familiar in 13^th Century Europe; a manifestation of Bastet, a fertility goddess in Ancient Egypt; that cutie with the big eyes in Flow.

But these are all small cats, and the wonder they provoke only scales with size. The Panther, one of the largest cats on the planet, is very much not a small cat, but nor is it a single species of cat at all.

Panther Facts Overview

Panthers, as ancient and majestic as any mammal on the planet today, are not, in fact, a species of animal, but a beautiful. mutant. They are rare, melanistic quirks among two Panthera species: the leopard and the jaguar.

This means they’re naturally occurring, but their rarity in both species comes from two different evolutionary mechanisms. And while they’re popular in zoos, they’re not so popular in the wild, and have a much harder time hiding than their spotted kin. Some say they’re loose on the moors, but this seems highly unlikely, given all the mobile phones and decades that have contributed to the modern world since they were supposedly released. Regardless, their ancient allure has not diminished and panthers are still some of the most stunning sights to see in the wild.

Interesting Panther Facts

1. Panthera vs Panther

The word Panther means different things to different people. Most of the meanings relate to rock music, of course, but there are zoological ones here and there.

The word shares its roots with the genus Panthera which is where all our big cats sit on the tree of life. Panthera contains the tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard and jaguar, and it’s also where all panthers are found.

But panthers aren’t a species of cat. Rather, they’re an individual of either the leopard or the jaguar with a melanistic coat. Tigers, too, exhibit melanism in rare instances, but it’s not complete – the tiger’s colour and stripes are still clearly visible – so it’s not considered a panther.

2. They’re naturally occurring

Unlike man-made abominations like the liger, tigron, and the vast majority of white tigers; panthers actually do occur naturally in the wild.

In leopards, their melanism is the product of combined recessive alleles, making them perfectly healthy and a natural product of the statistical inevitability of Mendelian genetics. To save going back over high school textbooks, this means that a panther’s parents must both carry the melanistic gene and also pass it onto the cub itself.

In the Jaguar it’s slightly different. Their melanism actually comes from a dominant gene, which means that any jaguar with that gene will express it. ¹

3. They’re rare for different reasons

Statistically, a recessive allele is expressed only a small percentage of the time, which easily explains why black leopards are rare. Black leopards make up somewhere around 10% of the population.

But Jaguars are often equally rare, yet their melanistic gene is dominant, so there has to be another reason for why they aren’t often seen.

It’s thought that in the dappled light of the South American rainforest, being mottled is a lot better camouflage than being black, even at night. The rosetted pattern of the jaguar is almost perfectly adapted to blending in with the broken lines and shadowy visage of the jungle, and a big, solid-black cat is a lot easier to “spot”.

So, black jaguars are rare for the simple reason that it’s a huge disadvantage to them to be black, and actually, black jaguars become far more prevalent in certain areas where their blackness isn’t such a burden. These are likely locations where there is plenty of food that’s easy to catch without being camouflaged, and in these places, black jaguars have been estimated to make up 25% or more of the population. ^{2 3}

4. Panthers in the UK

Melanistic leopards, being that they are still leopards, are incredibly hardy and adaptable animals. In fact, the leopard is the most widespread geographically distributed big cat in the world. They are equally at home in hot and cold climates and will kill and eat almost anything, including – if given the chance – the British livestock on the moors.

Back in the ‘60s, you could buy a leopard cub in Harrods, in London. This is also where Christian, the famous internet lion, was purchased. When the Dangerous Animals Act came into play in 1976, many who didn’t want to euthanise their pets set them free, and this is how some believe a panther still roams the land in various parts of the British Isles.

It’s essentially a modern-day legend, and it’s widely believed that a breeding population of big cats in Britain would be impossible to miss, the alure of the panther continues, and like tales of the Loch Ness monster, witnesses are still reporting scary interactions with mysterious, big black cats in the UK. ^{4  5}

5. Their legends go back a long way

Black panthers obviously didn’t achieve legendary status in the ‘60s; humans are predictable creatures and they like what they like – and apparently always have done!

The Ancient Greeks considered the panther a worthy steed of the god Dionysus; long before that, panther skins were featured in a ritualistic practice in Ancient Egypt’s “Book of the Dead”. In the Americas, melanistic jaguars show up in various tribal icons, like Mishipeshu, the underwater panther that lived in the Great Lakes, according to indigenous Anishinaabe legends.

It’s no surprise that such a rare and striking animal inspired legends, and this attitude clearly continues into the modern day. Unfortunately, our modern obsessions are a lot more possessive. ⁶

6. They don’t make good pets

Zoos and private animal collections trip over themselves to host a black panther, for obvious reasons, but this is a delicate balance to maintain, even for the most accredited institutions. Animals like leopards need space to be happy, but if you give them that, they’re hardly seen. And zoos need people to come and see the animals so they can afford to continue funding their research goals.

Panthers are rare already, so breeding the melanistic gene into a captive population goes against their natural order, but more specifically risks serious in-breeding issues on top of that. Even accredited organisations have heavy regulations around this practice, and so when you come across a photo of a panther looking a little derpy and cross-eyed, you can be sure it’s an inbred domestic individual.  

Unfortunately, the best way to see a panther is to go out and find one. Fortunately, we know exactly where you can do this.

7. Laikipia Leopard

It’s only a small, academic step to take to go from an animal lover into a contributing ecologist, zoologist, vet, or any other animal helper, and one of the coolest places to cut those teeth if you’re into studying African savanna wildlife is the Laikipia wildlife park in Kenya.

It’s an indescribable garden of Eden, protected from over-tourism and so rich with vertebrate species you can give yourself tennis neck trying to spot them all. As a research station, they are well worth supporting, and one of the most recent draws is their spectacular black leopard – a wild panther! ⁷

Panther Fact-File Summary

Scientific Classification

1. , “Jaguar”, Science Direct.
2. Mooring et al (2020), “Natural Selection of Melanism in Costa Rican Jaguar and Oncilla: A Test of Gloger’s Rule and the Temporal Segregation Hypothesis”, Sage Journals .
3. Angela Cave (2018), “How Often Can Big Cats Be Black?”, Panthera.
4. (2000), “Police ‘big cat’ warning”, BBC News.
5. , “Lady Walking her Pet Leopard in London, 1960s ”, Reddit.
6. , “Native American Panther Mythology ”, Native Languages.
7. , “Black leopards in Laikipia”, Laikipia Wilderness Camp.