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NUMBER: 20130121
SPECIES: Panther, Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1758)
SUBSPECIES: North American Panther, Puma concolor couguar Kerr, 1792 [formerly Florida Panther, Puma concolor coryi Bangs, 1899]. Only 1 subspecies is recognized in North America; however, it has been extirpated in eastern North America, except Florida.
DISTINCTIONS: Long, thick tail, large head, deep (not fat body), very muscular legs.
SIZE, DEVELOPMENT: body ~1.0-1.2 m (3.5-4 ft) long (estimated), immature
DATE, TIME, DURATION: 21 January 2013, early morning, 2-3 minutes
LOCALITY: near John Prince Park, Lake Osborne in Lake Worth, Florida (USA)
LATITUDE, LONGITUDE: 35°35’30.12” N, 80°4’40.44” W (26.5917, -80.0779)
HABITAT: in open field near woods
REPORTED TO: Florida Panther Project, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They said the specimen was a Domestic Cat, Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758, and did not investigate. Obviously, it was not a Domestic Cat. The tail is too thick and held in the wrong position. The head is too large and the wrong shape. This animal was known, as a mystery, to local residents. They did not believe it was a feral Domestic Cat.
DATA REPORT: iNaturalist #35790675 [also see iNaturalist #35778168 & ???]
BEHAVIOR: laying in open field. Stood up, stretched, and walked slowly into some woods.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Skinner ~23 m (~75 ft) away
BLACK BOBCAT: Coleman (2007) documented 14 black (melanistic) Bobcats in south- and south-central Florida (1939-2007). He stated no Florida records of documented black Panthers exist. Apparently, no confirmed record of any North American black Panther exists. REW thought the cat was a Panther. The Figure shows a large, black cat with a thick, long tail. This was not a Bobcat.
IMPORTANCE: Possible first record of a North American black Panther
BLACK LEOPARD: Coincidentally, LBW and EHW observed and photographed a rare black Sri Lankan Leopard, Panthera pardus kotiya Deraniyagala, 1956, 14 July 2010, in Horton Plains National Park, Nuwara Eliya, Siri Lanka [see iNaturalist #???].
OBSERVERS: Dr. Ernest H. Williams, Jr.[1,2,4,5] Dr. Raymond E. Waldner [7] and Dr. Lucy Bunkley-Williams[1,3,4,6]
AFILIATIONS, ADDRESSES: [1]Extraordinary Professors, Potchefstroom Campus, North-West University, South Africa; Adjunct Professors, Research Field Station, Florida Gulf Coast University, 5164 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs, FL 34134; [2]Dept. Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico (retired); [3]Dept. Biology, UPR (retired); [4]920 St. Andrews Blvd, Naples, FL 34113-8943; [5]e-mail ermest.williams1@upr.edu; cell 239-227-3645, ORCID 0000-0003-0913-3013; [6]Cell 787-467-2179, e-mail lucy.williams1@upr.edu, ORCID 0000-0003-1390-911x; [7] Professor of Biology and Associate Dean of Sciences, Palm Beach Atlantic University, 901 S. Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach, Fl 33410.
REFERENCES:
<>Coleman, L. 2007. Melanistic Bobcat caught. Cryptomundo News, https://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/07blk-bobcat/
<>NBC. 2007. Lynx on the rise, breeding with bobcats in N.B. CBS News, posted 5 February 2007, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/lynx-on-the-rise-breeding-with-bobcats-in-n-b-1.685497
<>Williams, E. H., Jr., R. E. Waldner, and L. Bunkley-Williams. 2019. First confirmed report of a black (melanistic) Panther in North America? Research Quality Report, iNaturalist #35790675, 17 November (open access) [443]