The Black Leopard

A melanistic morph of the leopard occurs, particularly in mountainous areas and rain forests. The black color is heritable and caused by recessive gene loci.(While they are commonly called black panthers, tMelanistic leopards are particularly common on the Malayan Peninsula: early reports suggested up to half of all leopards there are black, but a 2007 camera-trap study in Taman Negara National Park found that all specimens were melanistic.Although the benefits of melanism are difficult to interpret, it may serve as camouflage in the rainforest habitat. Genetic research has found four independent origins for melanism in cats, suggesting that there must be some adaptive advantage. Another possibility is that the color variation is a relic adaptation to an epidemic; genes causing melanism can also affect the immune system.
In Africa, black leopards are much less common as melanism is not an adaptive advantage on the savanna: dark coloration provides poor camouflage and makes hunting difficult. Estimates are as low as one in 80 or 100. In the dense forests of the Ethiopian Highlands, however, the black leopard is much more common than in Africa generally; as many as one in five leopards may be melanistic.
Pseudo-melanism (abundism) occurs in leopards. The spots are more densely packed than normal and merge to obscure the background colour.he term is not exclusive to leopards; it also applies to melanistic jaguars.)