Black panther

Page protected with pending changes
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A black panther is the

dominant allele
in the jaguar.

Leopard

Kromdraai

In 1788,

scientific name Felis fusca for this cat, the Indian leopard (P. p. fusca).[2][3]
In 1809,
southern India than in other parts of the country.[5] Black leopards were also frequently encountered in southern Myanmar.[6]
By 1929, the Natural History Museum, London had skins of black leopards collected in South Africa, Nepal, Assam and Kanara in India.[7] Black leopards were thought to be common on the Malay Peninsula and on Java.[8]

A black

alpine zone of Mount Kenya in the winter of 1989–1990.[9]
In Kenya's Laikipia County, a black leopard was photographed by a camera trap in 2007; in 2018, a female subadult black leopard was repeatedly recorded together with a spotted leopard about 50 km (31 mi) farther east in a grassland.[10]

In India's Western Ghats, black leopards were sighted and photographed in 2010 and 2012 in the Kas Plateau Reserved Forest, and in Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary in 2012.[11] In 2015, a dead black leopard was found on a highway near Satara in Maharashtra.[12] In May 2012, a black leopard was photographed at an elevation of 4,300 m (14,100 ft) in Nepal's Kanchenjunga Conservation Area.[13]

At least one black leopard was photographed in mixed deciduous forest in Thailand's Kaeng Krachan National Park during a one-year-long camera trapping survey from 2003 to 2004.[14] In 2009, black leopards were photographed more often than spotted leopards in Kui Buri National Park.[15] Most leopards recorded at 16 sites south of the Kra Isthmus between 1996 and 2009 were black, indicating a near-fixation of melanism in Peninsular Malaysia.[16] In 2019, a black individual was photographed outside a protected area in Jeli District.[17] Both black and spotted leopards were recorded in

Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park in West Java between 2005 and 2017.[18]

Frequency of melanism appears to be approximately 11% over the leopard's range. Data on the distribution of leopard populations indicates that melanism occurs in five subspecies in the wild: the Indian leopard, Javan leopard, African leopard, Indochinese leopard (P. p. delacouri) and Sri Lankan leopard (P. p. kotiya). Based on records from camera traps, melanistic leopards occur foremost in tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests.[19]

Melanism in the leopard is conferred by a

recessive allele.[20]
It is thought that melanism confers a selective advantage under certain conditions since it is more common in regions of dense forest, where light levels are lower. Preliminary studies also suggest that melanism might be linked to beneficial mutations in the immune system.[21] The typical spots and rosettes are present but hidden due to the excess melanin.[22]

The

hybridization between the Javan leopard and other leopard subspecies is uncertain. Therefore, coordinated breeding programs for black leopards do not exist in European and North American zoos.[23] Black leopards occupy space needed for breeding endangered leopard subspecies and are not included within the North American Species Survival Plan.[24][25]
A black Amur leopard (P. p. orientalis) was exhibited at the San Diego Zoo in 2017.[26]

A pseudo-melanistic leopard has a normal background color, but the spots are more densely packed than normal, and merge to obscure the golden-brown background color. Any spots on the flanks and limbs that have not merged into the mass of swirls and stripes are unusually small and discrete, rather than forming rosettes. The face and underparts are paler and dappled, like those of ordinary spotted leopards.[27]

Jaguar

Henry Doorly Zoo

In 1801, Félix de Azara described a black jaguar observed by local people near the Paraná River in Paraguay.[28] In 2004, a female black jaguar was recorded in Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental.[29] In 2009, a black jaguar was photographed by a camera trap for the first time in Costa Rica's Alberto Manuel Brenes Biological Reserve.[30] In Barbilla National Park, black jaguars were recorded in 2013.[31] In the mountains of the Cordillera de Talamanca, 104 records of jaguars were obtained between 2010 and 2019; 26 of them showed melanistic jaguars.[32] In eastern Panama, black jaguars were repeatedly photographed in the

primary forest.[33]
Melanism in the jaguar is caused by deletions in the
dominant allele.[34] Five black jaguars were monitored by researchers in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in the Brazilian State of Amazonas between 2003 and 2018. The researchers studied their behaviour in Várzea forest.[35]

Cougar

There is no authenticated case of a truly melanistic

]

See also

References

  1. ^ Delamétherie, J.-C. (1788). "Description d'une Panthère noire" [Description of a black Panther]. Observations et Mémoires sur la Physique, sur l'Histoire Naturelle et sur les Arts et Métiers, etc. (in French). 33: 45.
  2. ^ Meyer, F. A. A. (1794). "Über de la Metheries schwarzen Panther [About de la Metheries black Panther]". Zoologische Annalen (in German). Vol. Erster Band. Weimar: Im Verlage des Industrie-Comptoirs. pp. 394–396.
  3. ^ a b Pocock, R. I. (1930). "The Panthers and Ounces of Asia". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 34 (1): 307–336.
  4. ^ Cuvier, G. (1809). "Recherches sur les espėces vivantes de grands chats, pour servir de preuves et d'éclaircissement au chapitre sur les carnassiers fossils". Annales du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. XIV: 136–164.
  5. ^ Blanford, W. T. (1888). "Felis pardus. The Leopard or Panther". The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Mammalia: Volume 1. London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 67–71.
  6. ^ Mason, F. (1882). "F. pardus, L. The leopard". Burma, its people and productions; or, Notes on the fauna, flora, and minerals of Tenasserim, Pegu, and Burma. Vol. 1. Geology, mineralogy, and zoology (Rewritten and enlarged by W. Theobald ed.). Hertford: Chief Commissioner of British Burma. p. 472.
  7. ^ Pocock, R. I. (1929). "Black panthers – an inquiry". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 33 (3): 693–694.
  8. ^ Pocock, R. I. (1930). "The Panthers and Ounces of Asia". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 34 (1): 65–82.
  9. ^ Young, T. P. & Evans, M. E. (1993). "Alpine vertebrates of Mount Kenya, with particular notes on the rock hyrax". Journal of the East African Natural History Society. 82 (202): 54–79.
  10. S2CID 92543492
    .
  11. ^ Sayyed, A. & Mahabal, A. (2013). "Records of the melanistic Leopard Panthera pardus (Linnaeus) from Western Ghats area of Maharashtra and Karnataka, India". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 110 (2): 151.
  12. ^ Sayyed, A. & Mahabal, A. (2015). "Second record of melanistic leopard Panthera pardus (Linnaeus) from Satara, Maharashtra: a case of roadkill". Zoo's Print. 30 (5): 29.
  13. ^ Thapa, K.; Pradhan, N. M. B.; Barker, J.; Dahal, M.; Bhandari, A. R.; Gurung, G. S.; Rai, D. P.; Thapa, G. J.; Shrestha, S.; Singh, G. R. (2013). "High elevation record of a leopard cat in the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area, Nepal". Cat News (58): 26–27.
  14. .
  15. ^ Steinmetz, R.; Seuaturien, N.; Chutipong, W. & Poonnil, B. (2009). The ecology and conservation of tigers and their prey in Kuiburi National Park, Thailand (PDF) (Report). Bangkok: WWF Thailand, Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 May 2021.
  16. .
  17. .
  18. ^ Ario, A.; Supian; Hidayat, E.; Hidayatullah, R.; Rustiadi, A.; Gunawan, A.; Triprajawan, T.; Sopian, I.; Zatnika, R. R.; Yusup, D. M.; Hindrayani, W.; Mulyanto, A. & Iskandar, D. (2018). "Population dynamics and ecology of Javan leopard, Panthera pardus melas, in Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park, West Java". Journal of Indonesian Natural History. 6 (1): 6–13.
  19. PMID 28379961
    .
  20. .
  21. National Wildlife Magazine
    . 45 (1).
  22. .
  23. .
  24. ^ Richardson, D. M. (2001). "A simple analysis of leopard (Panthera pardus) space within EAZA collections". In Hiddinga, B.; Brouwer, K. (eds.). EAZA Yearbook 1999/2000. Amsterdam: EAZA Executive Office. pp. 391–392.
  25. ^ Swanson, B.; Fletchall, N. & Shoemaker, A. (2003). Felid Taxon Advisory Group North American Regional Collection Plan 2003–2005. Bay Lake: Disney's Animal Kingdom.
  26. ^ Parham, D. (2017). "Black Beauty". Zoonooz.
  27. .
  28. ^ Azara, F. de (1801). "L'Yagouarété". Essais sur l'histoire naturelle des quadrupedes de la province du Paraguay. Vol. 1. Paris: Charles Pougens. pp. 114–132.
  29. ^ Dinets, V. & Polechla, P. J. (2005). "First documentation of melanism in the jaguar (Panthera onca) from northern Mexico". Cat News. 42: 18. Archived from the original on 26 September 2006.
  30. ^ Núñez, M. C. & Jiménez, E. C. (2009). "A new record of a black jaguar, Panthera onca (Carnivora: Felidae) in Costa Rica". Brenesia. 71: 67–68.
  31. ^ Sáenz-Bolaños, C.; Montalvo, V.; Fuller, T. K. & Carrillo, E. (2015). "Records of black jaguars at Parque Nacional Barbilla, Costa Rica". Cat News (62): 38–39.
  32. .
  33. ^ Yacelga, M. & Craighead, K. (2019). "Melanistic jaguars in Panama". Cat News (70): 39–41.
  34. S2CID 19021807
    .
  35. ^ Publicidade, W5. "Onça-preta é monitorada na Amazônia por pesquisadores do Instituto Mamirauá". Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 20 August 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  36. JSTOR 20737121
    .

External links