What is the difference (if any) between a panther and a black leopard? A cougar and a montain lion?
87020
There is no difference between them, they are diffrent names for the same animal.\n_____\n\n>>>>>>First, is there such thing as a panther,\n>>>>> separate and distinct from a black leopard?\n\nNo. \n\nLet's set the wayback machine for 500BC, the early Roman Empire. At that time lions and leopards was still quite widespread in Egypt and Libya and was not uncommonly seen in Rome as a guard animal or exotic pet.\n\nBut travellers in those days also told stories of exotic and remarkable beasts like chimaeras, unicorns and rocs. And one of the exotic animals they told stories about was a large spotted cat called a pardus or pantherus. And just like the Rocs and unicorns the parda/panthera never existed. It was entirely made up. It had all sorts of remarkable traits. It could turn invisible. An adult pardus was at least as big as a lion but could shrink down to mimic a housecat so it get into houses and eat people in their sleep. A pardus could breath out a sweet fragrance that would cause its prey to become helpless and could even cause a human who breathed it to spend his life luting other humans off the road to be devoured by the pard.\n\nAnother common property of the Parda/Panthera is that they were all either male or female, and they could only reproduce by breeding with other animals. They mostly reproduced with lions (leo in Latin), giving rise to the hybrid animal know as leo pardus. A name the Romans later contracted to leopard. Early Romans seem to have genuinely believed that the leopard was not a species in its own right but a hybrid of a lion and the mythical panthera/parda.\n\nWhich is why we have all this confusion with the names. Panther applied to a fictitious big cat of unknown character, and a leopard was the offspring of a panther. Over time the names became every more confused and acquired subtly different meaning in the various European languages. \n\nBut in modern English the panther is just a leopard with black hair. They most commonly arise as individuals in a litter of otherwise perfectly normal leopards. Two spotted leopards will just produce black panthers occasionally. And two black panthers that breed will produce mostly spotted young. \n\nThe black hair is just a genetic quirk, it is exactly like red hair in humans. Just as two brown haired people can throw a red haired child, so two spotted leopards can throw black panther. \n\n>>>>Also, why would a melanistic version of a jaguar not be called a black jaguar instead of a black leopard?\n\nBecause South American countries speak Spanish or Portugese, not English. The word 'leopard' has a subtly different meaning in those languages. It is closer to the original Latin meaning of 'exotic big cat'. A black jaguar is rare enough to qualify as a leopard.\n\n>>>>>.... leopards are in Africa\n\nLeopards are the most widespread big cat on the planet. They are found in Africa, but they are also found through the middle east, into the Indian subcontinent and China and through South East Asia all the way to Java. They used to be common.\n\n>>> Makes no sense...\n\nIt makes no sense biologically. It makes perfect sense etymologically. \n\nJust like it makes perfect sense that Americans call a crocodilian alligator (literally meaning 'a lizard') when they have no close biological affinity to lizards. That could really confuse a Spanish speaker. But if you trace the etymology of the word it makes perfect sense.\n\nWords change there meaning over time, and when they hop between languages they often change meaning in very confusing ways.
57060
Wrong, blackvipe. The Sherman was american, the Panther was german, and the t-34 was russian.
1073270
According to the videos ive just seen, the tigers better!\n\nBut the lion wins in this one:\n\nhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4318948967926803903\n\nOf course either can win really... it depends on the animal and if a mother is protecting her young or whatever.
832340
daredevil would have the skill advantage, and his senses give him many other advantages (example, he can tell when someone is about to throw a punch just by picking up on body changes)... but panther is more savage and probably physically stronger...  it would be a good fight, but i have to give it to DD in the end
917137
The cougar is known by many common names, including puma, mountain lion, catamount, and panther. Next to the jaguar, it is the largest North American cat. Weights range from 80-225 pounds (36-103 kg), averaging 140 (64 kg). Length varies from 5-9 feet (150-275 cm); this measurement includes the 26-32 inch (66-82 cm) tail. Males are larger than females. Cougars have long, slender bodies and small, broad, round heads. Ears are short, erect and rounded. The short fur is usually tawny (brownish red-orange to light brown), more tan in the summer months and grayer during the winter. The muzzle, chin and underparts are a creamy white. Black coloring appears on the tip of the tail, behind the ears, and at the base of the whiskers on the sides of the muzzle. Immature cougars are paler, with obvious dark spots on their flanks.
1097672
Dude, these are called WarCats and they are used all the time in wars already.  Do you mean to tell me you did not know this?  How can this be? Giant WarCats have been used a lot in Africa over the past 20 years, they have the ability to get through the thickest jungle and can see very well in the dark.  God would approve of them because they have slogans written on them in the local dialects including "Allah is On Our Side."
1079080
no they are a different species
225762
Latin is a dead - UNCHANGING language - and that's exactly why - there are a dozen different common names for the mountain lion.  if one person calls it a mountain lion and another person calls it a cougar, how do they know that the other person is talking about the same animal?  To avoid confusion, they use a dead language to make it very clear that "Homo sapien sapien" means "human" or "person".
981130
Not clear at all.  Search the link for "pantherines".
1150537
lol depending on who you ask...it could be the outline of a bear, wolf. cougar. or panther...inside that are trees....Northern Woods! I'm from Min. and just asked 3 people and got 3 different answers! I'm going to check it out....being a WILD Fan myself, I need to know!
959779
You have the possiblity of having a Liger or Tigon depending on which is the male and which is the female. \n\nA Tigon is the hybrid of a male tiger and a lioness. The tigon is not currently as common as the converse hybrid, the liger, however in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tigons were more common than ligers.\n\n\n\n\n\nYou'll find the link I provided of particular interest.
970510
They are distantly related.\n\nThey share the same taxonomic clade:\nKingdom (Animalia), phylum (chordata), subphylum (vertabrata), class (mammalia), order (Carnivora) but it ends there, cats go on to have the family Felidae and bears the family Ursidae\n\nAfter family there is still the clades genus and species.\n\nHumans spilt from bears and cats at the order level.\n\nA cat is just as related to a bear as it is a dog, a seal or a raccoon.
82
In Africa, a pride of lions (male: ~400 lbs, female: ~280 lbs) pretty regularly hunt wildebeest (440-600 lbs), although they usually go after the sick or young ones.  Occasionally, they can take down a giraffe (2420-4250 lbs), but this doesn't happen often.  Elephants (11,000 lbs) and rhinos (2500 lbs) are just a little dangerous to be bothered.\nIn Asia, tigers can take down a water buffalo (1800-2600 lbs), although again, they usually go for the sick or young ones.\nThese are the cats with the largest prey.
328874
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_cat\n\nGenus Panthera:\n    * Lion (Africa, Gir Forest in India; in southeast Europe and the Middle East in classical times)\n    * Leopard (Asia and Africa)\n\nOther "big cats":\n    * Cheetah (Africa)\n\nHybrids:\n    * Tigon (male Tiger/female Lion)\n    * Liger (male Lion/female Tiger)\n    * Jagulep (male Jaguar/female Leopard)\n    * Lepjag (male leopard/female jaguar)\n    * Congolese Spotted Lion (Jagulep or Lepjag/Lion)\n    * Marozi (male Lion/female Leopard)\n    * Leopon (male Leopard/female Lion)\n    * For other hybrids see Panthera hybrid\n\nMedium-sized cats (much smaller than "big cats"):\n    * Caracal (Africa)\n    * Serval (Africa)\n    * African Golden Cat (Africa)\n\nhttp://www.agarman.dial.pipex.com/bco/spec_afr.htm
517112
lions and tigers are one i know of. aka ligers/tygons. i believe wolves/dogs can be too. i would assume that there could be a lot more possibilities as long as they are in the same family of animal.
556262
I saw a kudu nearly gore a cheetah. It came within inches, but lucky for the cheetah it has lightning reflexes. Lucky for the kudu it got away due to the counterattack.
121984
The cheetah. I forget exactly how fast it runs, but its well over 60mph at top speed.\n\nI think a type of gazelle is next fastest, like 40-ish mph. Ironic, cuz this is the cheetah's first source of prey. So both of them run fast.