Re: It's the Wednesday Quiz - 23 Feb '11
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. (They are commonly called black panthers, although the term is not exclusive to leopards; it also applies to melanistic jaguars.)
Melanistic leopards are particularly common on the Malayan Peninsula. Early reports suggested that up to half of all leopards are black, but a 2007 camera-trap study in Taman Negara National Park found that all specimens were melanistic. The benefits of melanism are difficult to interpret, but it may serve as camouflage in the rainforest habitat. Possible is also that the color variation is a relic adaptation to an epidemic; genes causing melanism can also affect the immune system.Genetic research has found four independent origins for melanism in cats, suggesting that there may be an adaptive advantage
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