black panther/ cougar??? / jaguar

someone made a post about black panthers. if you look at one in a zoo with the light hitting their fur at the right angle. you can see where the leopard spots should be. I have read that a dna test between a african leopard. and a jaguar from south america will show up as the same animal. I think the leopard may get to a larger size. I have never heard of an all black cougar. has anyone else? just

Black panthers are really black leopards/jaguars (or more correctly, melanistic leopards/jaguars, the term given to an animal with an overproduction of melanin, which turns the base coat dark brown). There is no credible substantiated report of a melanistic cougar - it seems the species does not possess the recessive gene that causes melanism, though it is present in most other cat species.

In terms of size, the South American jaguar (panthera onca) usually weighs more on average than the African or Asian leopard (panthera pardus), but the leopard is often longer in overall size, as it usually has a longer tail.

A DNA test should allow any scientist to distinguish between the two species quite handily!

Julia