PANTHERS' SPOTS

Most people’s image of a black panther has a sleek and uniformly black coat. However, a black panther is not a species in its own right; it is merely a name for any large black cat – a melanistic variant of a normal species.

Jaguars and leopards – the most common black panthers – both normally have spots on their coats and these darker areas persist on the black background. In certain lights, typically shaped spots are clearly visible on the panther’s coat.

Jaguars and leopards can be difficult to tell apart. The easiest way in the wild is location - jaguars are confined to the new world (North and South America) whereas leopards are old world (Africa and East). Jaguars are more muscular in build and generally larger; an easy way to distinguish them up close, though, is their spots (called "Rosettes"). Leopards' rosettes lack internal spots (so the example above is a leopard). 

Leopard under a tree	Jaguar - note internal spots in the rosettes