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While researching for my own purposes, I came across something interesting.

There is no such thing as a black panther BREED. In fact, black panthers are generally a black variation of large cats, usually leopards or jaguars. A term used is called 'melanistic', which is a dark-colored skin and hair pigment. In many cases when you look up black panther, you'll see black 'panthers' but they have markings, such as spots, on them. When melanism occurs, the cat is dark-colored but their markings are still visible, especially in the bright sunlight.

For example.

Here is an example of what a black 'panther' is when you search on google:



When you look up what a black leopard looks like, you get the same results. The visibility of the markings depend on the lighting of the angle, but the two pictures I've used as examples of what a black leopard is.

And examples of a black jaguar:





The second picture is an example of a mother black jaguar with her cub. Melanism is hereditary but it is not directly passed to the next generation, which explains why the cub is not black like its mother.


And here are just some links to better detailed descriptions of a 'black panther'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6przuR7ITfY
http://ds.dial.pipex.com/agarman/bco/fact2.htm
http://blackpantheranimal.com/black-leopard.php
http://www.scs.abelgratis.co.uk/bigcats ... opard.html
http://www.agarman.dial.pipex.com/bco/jaguar.htm
http://scotcats.online.fr/abc/catspecie ... guars.html

I didn't know that, interesting. This also can be said about the white bengal tiger.