What do you think about when you hear the word ‘panther?’ Perhaps you think of a leopard with a night-black coat, popular cartoon character Pink Panther, or – depending on where you come from – a mountain lion . However, panthers are not limited to leopards alone, and the cats you may believe to be panthers are actually not.
What IS a panther?
By definition, a panther is any species that falls under the panthera genus – which is part of the felidae family! The panthera genus consists of five species of animals of which are your usual big cats such as-
- Lions
- Tigers
- Leopards
- Jaguars
- Snow leopards
However, the descriptor ‘panther’ is also very often used to describe cats within the puma genus – mountain lions/cougars. While these cats are big, they are not considered as a ’roaring cat’, or a panther, as they cannot roar. In fact, they lack bone known as the hyoid bone which all cats in the panthera genus, except for the snow leopard, share. What about the snow leopard? Why are they there then? Snow leopards originally had their own genus, but with the inclusion of genetic studies it was discovered snow leopards are closely related to other members of the panthera genus such as tigers.
Black Panthers
So if a panther is every cat in one genus, what makes a black panther a black panther? The term ’black panther’ is just that, a description of a panther with a clack coat. However, this black coloring caused by genetic, otherwise known as melanism. Several species in the felidae family as a whole can have melanism, but it is not limited to cats either. Melanism can be caused by either a dominant gene or a recessive gene depending on the cat. Jaguars with melanism carry the dominate gene for it, making melanistic jaguars the most common black panther.
So in short, all of these cats are black panthers!
Similarly, this genetic effect can also occur in the opposite manner to get white panthers, albinism for a total lack of pigmentation or leucism for a partial lack of pigmentation. However, white panthers are significantly less common, and of the two leucism is more common than albinism.
Pink Panthers
To your surprise, ’pink’ panthers also exist! Much like melanism, erythrism is another genetic-caused coloring! In this case, the genes that create black coloration is replace by red or brown hues . Erythrism is very rare in wild species of panthera and has been recorded only around five times. However, this creates panthers that are paler in comparison and are often referred to as ’strawberry’ colored, or even better, a pink panther!
