Melanistic leopards like this one are commonly referred to as "black panthers."
The Basics
In case you skipped the introductory lessons, here’s the rundown on black cats. Black coloring (melanism) in wild cats is a trait caused by genetics. These darker cats are the same species as their lighter counterparts; think of it as the difference between a brunette and a redhead. At least 13 species of wild cats can exhibit melanism, including; jaguars, leopards, servals, Geoffroy’s cats, oncillas, Pampas cats, and Asian Golden Cats.
Despite being a popular term, a black panther is not a separate species of big cat, rather, it is a non-official name often given to big cats that have this dark coloring. Both jaguars and leopards can exhibit melanism which has led to the term “black panther” being used to describe both species of big cat over time.
No. “As far as we know (since no research to date has shown otherwise) incomplete expression of the melanistic phenotype in wild cats is not possible,” says Dr. Byron Weckworth, Panthera’s Director of Conservation Genetics. “This is because melanism follows a Mendelian mode of inheritance (i.e. there are two phenotypes for a given trait). As we currently understand it, a cat will only express one of these three combinations and not a mixture that allows them to be half or partly melanistic.”
In the case of leopards, two genotypes (“AA” and “Aa”) express the dominant phenotype of normal coloring while the “aa” genotype expresses the recessive phenotype of black coloring. Jaguars, on the other hand, experience melanism due to the dominant allele of a gene. However, this dominance does not increase the frequency of black jaguars observed in the wild. It’s believed that melanism in both jaguars and leopards is thought to be expressed in 10% of each population.
Do Black Cats Still Have Spots?
Yes. An interesting observation from Dr. Weckworth on melanistic leopards is that their rosettes are still visible in the proper light. This indicates that there are different molecular mechanisms that code for melanism vs. coat patterns in cats. This means a leopard or jaguar never really loses its spots, they’re simply more difficult to discern underneath their darker coloring.
In this photo of a melanistic leopard in Malaysia, you can still see the cat's spots underneath its dark coloring.
Nature vs. Nurture
Environmental conditions do not impact the expression of melanism as it is a purely genetic driven trait. The environment, however, does impact the success of melanistic individuals via natural selection, which impacts the frequency of those genes in the population. Dr. Weckworth notes that this non-random distribution of the melanistic trait leads us to believe that there is likely some sort of adaptive selection occurring.
In some environments, having black coloring can be either helpful or harmful to that species’ survival and reproduction. Melanistic cats are more common in moist forests, for example in Malaysia, which suggests an adaptive advantage to the trait in these environments, perhaps related to thermoregulation or some other functional characteristic.
In contrast, more open habitats, such as regions of Africa and China, show almost no presence of melanism, which we might hypothesize is due to purifying selection where melanistic individuals are less adapted to those habitats and so do not pass along their genes as frequently as normally patterned individuals do.
Black jaguars like this one are much more difficult to find and photograph in the wild than black leopards.
Despite the superstitions connected to melanistic felines, having one of these black cats cross your path in the wild is very lucky! Want to learn more about wild cats? Stay tuned for more Wild Cats 101 installments and check out our previous blog comparing jaguars and leopards in more detail.
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