Graceful and imposing animal - panther

The black panther is a very beautiful and graceful animal. Panther in most people is associated with the tale of Kipling "Mowgli". Remember Bagheera with her exquisite grace and imposing? Not without reason in the mythology of the Sumerians, it is the animal of the panther personifying the goddess of love and fertility.

A panther is a leopard?

In general, a black panther is rare in nature. From the point of view of zoology, this is not a separate species of the animal, but simply melanism (Genetic variant of coloration), observed in different representatives of the cat family. Usually a leopard or a jaguar falls under this category.

The black panther is an animal, to put it mildly, not exactly black ... Its skin is not perfectly black! If you look closely, you can notice more or less visible patches. Zoologists do not distinguish between ordinary spotted and black leopards (who still do not understand, it's the same animal - a panther and a leopard). These individuals perfectly cross, a large number of offspring appear. Cubs can be of a variety of colors: from bright spotted to black with barely visible specks.

Careful, predator!

Friends, the black panther is not only the most graceful wild cat, but also, perhaps, a real bloodthirsty beast! It is more fearless and cruel than tigers, lions and other dangerous animals. If she is hungry, then with the choice of the "menu" is not particularly ceremonious ... Throws to everything that moves, including a person.

Six meters above the ground ...

One of the most famous skills of this graceful cat is perfect climbing through trees. There panthers sometimes hunt ... monkeys. Yes, and in this there is nothing funny! They do this compulsorily, because sometimes on the ground their caught prey can be taken away by lions or hyenas. Panthers sleep and rest too on trees (like leopards). They stretch out on strong branches, dangling their paws and tail down. The usual height at which these cats "hang" on the trees is six meters above the ground.

Hunting

Panther - just an excellent huntress. She goes to search for her prey at night. It is not hard to guess that in the dark this animal is almost impossible to see. Yes, and the predator steals absolutely noiselessly. When the hunt is over, the cat drags the prey onto the tree. As we said above, there the killed animal will not be accessible to hyenas and lions. She's such a panther (photo)!

The animal in length is about 1 meter and 80 centimeters, and its tail taken separately - up to a meter. Usually the weight of these cats does not exceed half a centner, but in nature there were individuals exceeding 100 kilograms! Their habitats are tropical countries. Today, many black panthers settled on the island of Java.

Interesting, but true

Without a doubt, this is quite an intriguing animal. Pantheras, as scientists believed, copulating with a lion, gave a hybrid - leopards (hence, the word "leo" in the name, and also "pard" - the old version of the word "panther"). However, soon this intrigue was revealed. Now it is scientifically proven that the panther is still a subspecies of leopards. Today, zoologists do not exclude the possibility of a panther transition into an independent zoological species, that is, their separation from leopards.