[meteorite-list] OT: Black Panthers

[Phil Whitmer]

Common names of wild big cats cause a lot of confusion.  The largest and 
most common one is the Puma concolor, formerly known as Felis concolor. It's 
the mountain lion (cat), cougar, puma, etc. There are very dark colored 
strains of P. concolor but they are extremely rare.  Pumas can be found 
almost anywhere except in the east where the only breeding population lives 
in Florida, where they are commonly called panthers.

Panthera onca is the jauguar, or panther, the second largest big cat. They 
have the strongest jaws and biggest teeth of the large wild cats. They're 
the only head-biters of the wild cats, puncturing skulls with their big 
canines. The other cats kill you by chewing through your neck. Most P. onca 
are spotted, like their African leopard cousins, Panthera pardus. P. oncas 
can be found straying into AZ and NM, with a rumored breeding population 
south of Tucson.

Black panthers (Panthera onca) have a genetic melanistic mutation giving 
them their color. Established breeding populations of black-mutated  P. onca 
are very rare in the wild. Your chances of encountering one in the wild in 
the U.S. are pretty much zero. But watch out for Texas mountain lions, 
they'll pounce and rip your jugular out in a jiffy.

Phil Whitmer