The truth about 'black panthers' - Don't be fooled, there are no black panthers!

Imagine you are walking through the jungle in Southwest China when suddenly you come across a large dark patch, like a shadow, standing still. Your eyes catch two silver-gray spheres among the glossy green leaves. Then, in an instant, the darkness disappeared, like darkness suddenly remembering light. Back in a village, the villagers reveal that you have met a black panther directly, but when you go online to search for information, you can't find anything. However, black panthers are not mysterious beasts, they are the product of anomalous genes, like conjoined ear lobes or the ability to roll your tongue.

 
Black panthers aren't even completely black.

Thanks to modern genetics, we now know that the creatures we call black panthers are actually a melanistic variant, due to an excess of the pigment melanin that causes their fur to turn black. This feature often appears on two big cats, leopards and jaguars. In leopards, melanism comes from a dominant allele (like a conjoined ear lobe).

In jaguars, it comes from a recessive allele (like possibly tongue-rolling). Black panthers are any of the melanistic variants of species in the genus Panthera.

In fact, the term 'panther' can refer to a leopard, jaguar or cougar based on where it lives. Black panther is not a term for a species, it is a term for any large cat with black coat, suffering from melanism.

Black panthers aren't even completely black. Take a closer look at a leopard's coat and you'll see that the characteristic spots of jaguars and jaguars are still there, hidden under a coat of excess melanin pigment called "ghost bands".

"Ghost band" on a leopard's fur in Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve, Kromdraai, South Africa

'If there is light on it you will easily see these spots appear on its fur. In low light, it is difficult to see them. Black panthers are more common in Asia than in Africa,' said Patrick Thomas, curator of the Bronx Zoo for the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Wouldn't a jet-black coat give predators an edge?

Reality is the exact opposite of what we think. Thomas said: 'In the animal kingdom, it's easier to spot a solid black mass than a mixed color. So a tiger with stripes or a leopard, jaguar, or cheetah with their spots will be harder to see in vegetation than an animal of a uniform color.

Also, people often misunderstand black panthers as night owls. 'They are a very opportunistic species. If they find prey during the day when they are hungry, they are ready to expose themselves to the light and hunt,' Thomas said.

In particular, if they choose to hunt during the day, the spots on their back will be more obvious and create an advantage on par with tigers, jaguars or leopards.

Although black panthers are actually leopards or jaguars, only they are mutated, but the myths about leopards are still there, becoming a popular story among the people.