WHAT’s IN A NAME?
This LiveScience article ”Texas Pumas Rescue Florida Panthers | Big Cat Endangered Species, Wild Cats & Inbreeding | LiveScience” is quite interesting but for a while I was wondering which animal was being referred to. The talk, as shown by the title, was of panthers. But I didn’t think there were any wild panthers outside of Asia and Africa so the bit about panthers in Florida had me a bit bemused. So some Wiki Work was called for.
Turns out there are (at least) three wild big cats that wear the label Panther:
- Melanistic leopards (Panthera pardus), found in Africa and Asia;
- Black Panthers which are melanistic Jaguars (Panthera onca), found in the Americas; and
- Florida Panthers which are a blue-eyed subspecies of of the Puma [also known as a Cougar] (Puma concolor), also found in the Americas.
The one thing they all have in common is being big black cats. So when you say Panther it depends on who you are as to what you mean. That’s exactly why scientific names are so important because each one is specific and unique.
In any event all big cats, with the possible exception of lions, are in trouble so the substance of the article is good news.
No comments:
Post a Comment