Jaguar or Panther?

Well what would you call it?

While I was at the zoo observing this magnificent creature I heard one woman on my right telling her young son that this is a special black jaguar and it was lovely to hear the child's exclamation of wonder and awe.

Almost immediately a woman to my left said to her son "that woman called it a Jaguar but she's wrong, it's a Black Panther"  Again the boy made appreciative noises as he admired the beauty.

As much as I was enjoying the spectacle (I had waited quite a while for the big cat to come out of its dark den) I felt a little uncomfortable with the parents either side of me trying to prove their superior knowledge to their children. The truth is the cat in the picture (Named Goshi by the keepers at the zoo) is a Jaguar, it's Binomial name is Pantera onca and they are native of Central and Southern America. They are closely related to Leopards which are native of Asia and Africa.

A Black Panther is a melanistic variety of either Leopard or Jaguar and since this was a jaguar both women were right to describe it as they did, but one was wrong to demean the other because she thought she knew better. As it is she should have known better and set a better example to her child. What is more the information was clearly available on a plaque for all to see if only people took the time to read.

There were other examples during my few hours at the zoo where parents confidently (but incorrectly) identified creatures to their children and it wound me up but I'll say no more, you don't want to have me ranting about that. 

If you have made it this far in to my post today I thank you for your patience I just had to get that off my chest. Now back to the picture...

From a distance the Black Panther appears to be completely black with a smooth black coat but if you look closely you can see similar mottled markings to the "normal" golden variety. It really is beautiful.

By way of further explanation (just in case it is needed) Melanism is the development of dark pigmentation and is the opposite of albinism (albino), other examples are black squirrels which are melanistic variants of grey  squirrels, and more rarely melanistic guinea pigs.