The Imposing Black Leopard!

Freda Savahl
5 min readMay 4, 2022

A rare, wild & elusive animal!

Jo Mburu -Founder of PRESERVING OUR ANIMALS IN THE WILD-Source. FormerFruit/ Reddit

Melanistic leopards and jaguars are uncommon. In addition, confirmed sightings, especially in Africa, are rare events. However, scientists saw a black leopard in Kenya in 2019.

Classification of the black leopard:

Kingdom Animalia.

Phylum Chordata.

Class: Mammalia.

Order: Carnivora.

Family: Felidae.

Genus: Panthera.

Species: Panthera Pardus.

What is a Panther?

A Panther is either a melanistic jaguar (Panthera Onca) or a melanistic leopard-(Panthera Pardus.)

https://www.wildcatsanctuary.org/the-top-5-differences-between-jaguars-and-leopards/

What’s the difference?

The term panther describes a black jaguar or a black leopard, but there are key differences to tell them apart.

The jaguar is stockier & more muscular than the leopard. Its body is compact. It has a broader head, powerful jaws & its tail is shorter than the leopard's tail.

I will write about the…

--

--

Freda Savahl

Retired Nurse Practitioner WHC /Contract Provider Deployment Military Services. US Citizen. Immigrant from South Africa 1978.