Every time I hear some 'expert' (X =The Unknown and spurt is a drip under pressure) either a zoologist or cryptozoologist stating that black pumas are "impossible" or that they are so rare that one has never been presented to science I roll my eyes. People who see these animals rarely have a firearm and most are awe struck by the sight (maybe also a little scared). They do not think "If I killed that science would have an animal to dissect" and after 50 years experience I can guarantee this: presented with a dead black puma the experts involved would still say "Well, it is a rarity and probably a one off" so you would prove nothing about the existence of a black puma.
It does not matter the status of the person reporting a black puma they will still be called liars or mistaken-the experts can be pigs. Polite pigs but pigs all the same (I now feel that I have insulted pigs). For example, a biologist who taught at night school refused to accept that a senior zoologist with an international reputation who had also work on pumas had actually seen a black puma in good conditions and within a few yards of his car. He even got out and took measurements of the road barrier etc to estimate size and "I looked at each of its diagnostic features and there is no doubt that it was a black puma; had it been a black leopard I would not have left the car to walk around". But, no, the biologist stated that the man had seen a black leopard but would not talk to the zoologist personally. He knew that he was wrong but he wanted to keep dogma going and knew that a much senior expert would tear him to shreds.
If you look at the amount of technical information on pumas you will find that there is absolutely no scientific reason why a puma cannot be black. To say a puma cannot be is absolute nonsense based on dogma and stupidity through lack of research. "If they do occur then it would be in South America" is the other response. Yes. Well, there were very many species imported from both North , Central and South America and amongst them were black puma. Not jaguars that were clearly identified in the same accounts but melanistic pumas.
Black jaguars and pumas as well as leopards were what showmen and the travelling menageries wanted. A story could be spun around them for the punters spending their cash to see the animal that encountered in the night you would never know was there until your lantern caught the flash of its eyes or the white of its teeth by which time it was too late! It was all about show.
Also, do not think that certain 'sportsmen' would not release a puma, leopard or lynx for a "bit of sport" -they released jackals, wolves and coyotes for just such a thing.
We then come to the equally dumb (I make no apologies as by now I am beyond being polite to idiocy based on dogma passed off as knowledge) "Why black leopards (panthers) -they are rare so to have so many reported is ludicrous". Firstly, we have accounts going back hundreds of years of black leopards escaping, being killed or even in one case a black leopard (one of a pair) killing a pub worker who kept entering its cage to abuse it. We have newspapers reporting on a "fine pair of black panthers imported" and so on and so forth.
Ask yourself why zoos and wildlife parks have the same cats in their collections -lynx, 'wild cats' (the wild tabby), puma and leopards. Without fail the leopards are all black and when I first realised this while carrying out research I realised that black leopards are not "very rare". They are found in Africa and India. Back in the 1990s there was a video clip of a black leopard released for a "canned" hunt -the cowards were such incompetents that they shot and killed it on the spot before it was even away from the vehicles cage.
Also in the late 1990s someone misunderstood my work and I was contacted by someone from the Indian Embassy of all places who told me that so long as I had the facilities to hold them in a pair of black leopards could be supplied to me for £160 -transport was covered by them. I had my doubts but the RSPCA, Born Free organisation and even police were aware of this trafficking -all covered by official documentation.
Black leopard breeding with black leopard does not necessarily mean the offspring will be black and we have had in the UK at least two "regular coloured" leopard sightings. Oh, I still have the affidavit (see The Red Paper Felids) of the black panther put down on a man's property by a MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food) vet in the late 1990s -days later a second panther was sighted.
above an Indian black leopard taken on a black leopard safari tour (c)2023 Tiger Tours.
According to Indian government sources: There are only 2,000 black leopards in the wild with most found in Southeast Asia where tropical forests offer an abundance of shade.
Yes, "only" 2000 black leopards in the wild in India. I would say that 2000 is pretty much a declaration of not being that "extremely rare"?
According to a BBC news item: "Lurking in the forests of Mount Kenya and the Aberdares is a surprise - a black panther, a rarely glimpsed version of the leopard. Though spotted leopards are seen across the continent, these beautiful black versions seem only to arise on the mountains of the Great Rift."
Above: an African black leopard (c)2023 BBC
There are a lot of black leopards. There are black puma. But we are not talking about a huge population wild in the UK. I have discussed possible population numbers before
The problem in the UK is getting an accurate enough description of a cat seen to be able to identify it as a leopard or puma. In the hundreds of conversations I have had over the years a careful process of questioning enabled me to identify the type of cat involved. In one case the description was so detailed (the cat was 10 feet/3m or less from the observer) that it could be nothing other than a black leopard. A police search later found a black hair and DNA testing came back as Panthera pardus -leopard.You need to ask the witness to concentrate on not just the colour but ears, head and muzzle shape, the tail and more. Interestingly enough a very well known shepherd in Wales who spent time on the mountains with the huge flock he looked after had no concerns that once a month or so a sheep was taken as it was a natural loss "and the poor cat has to eat to survive and it's not its fault it is stuck out here". So I asked for a description as he had seen two cats separately and together. Good and accurate description of a puma and he had seen then from at least 100 yards more than once. "Both the same but one chunkier and black" he said. I sat up as I actually thought these were pet releases -a puma and a black leopard because I had dogma shoved into my brain when I was younger. More questioning and I was stumped; exactly the same type of cat with the same diagnostic features.
I mentioned this to others and they laughed but the observer was an ex military man and very observant and had seen these cats often. This all pushed me into looking at puma melanism. And within a couple of weeks I realised the lie of "no black pumas" and at the time I was in touch with a man running a top DNA lab and he had a very good reputation so I asked about the puma melanism and he checked while we were on the phone. He told me that "There is no reason you cannot have a black puma" he said and added more about wild cats and DNA.
So, when you hear or read the idiots spreading dogma remember they have carried out no research but basing everything on proven dogma.
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