He’s lying on his prey to capture it while it’s dazed (cats do this while playing with mice!). His lashing tail shows he is still very excited. Then, when he moves, it also moves a bit and his sensitive belly hairs detect this. Prey is awake! Play again!
A black panther is the melanistic color variant of any big cat species. Black panthers in Asia and Africa are leopards (Panthera pardus), and those in the Americas are black jaguars (Panthera onca).
Close examination of the color of these black cats will show that the typical markings are still present, but are hidden by the excess black pigment melanin.
Melanistic and non-melanistic animals can be littermates.
There are no authenticated cases of truly melanistic cougars; sightings are assumed to be misidentifications.
they’re all so perfect and important!!!!! I love that the OP clarified the important leopard/jaguar distinction, because it is IMPORTANT!!!! Black panthers are actually TWO SEPARATE SPECIES sharing in common a SPECIAL COLOR MORPH.
There are so many good things to know about black panthers and so many things to love. Personally: I love that black jaguars are so chonky. I love the visible rosettes. I love that the selection pressures of evolution, which normally create very homogeneous-looking animal populations in the wild, loosen their reins enough to allow diversity and divergence in the same species, sometimes even in the same litter. ISN’T THAT GREAT. ANIMALS ARE SO GREAT
I think that since “panther” is a cross-species designation, black housecats are every bit as entitled to be referred to as “panthers”. I have two and I call them panthers all the time.
