Here’s a review of the book. I’m not endorsing it, as I didn’t read it.
What’s interesting in the review is the pic of the black panther housecat.
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I have to be honest–from the pic, I would’ve thought it was a much larger cat. I can see how people make mistakes.
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Black Panther/Puma/Big Cat sightings not just a US thing. Periodically hits headlines in Australia as well. Never substantiated and mostly highly speculative. Myths and rumours of ex servicemen or circuses releasing animals in the past…
Probably has much to do with human. Subconsciousness psyche etc.
Regards
Jim
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It’s certainly not impossible that there are melanistic individuals of cougar. In fact, I think it’s a little odd that none have been verified from pelts or photos given the widespread (if rare) occurrence of melanism across mammal species. But even if we accepted that there might be the rare melanistic cougar out there, that certainly wouldn’t explain the many reports of black panthers.
I have one report from years ago of a black panther in SW New Mexico that was interesting because it was actually collected. The cat was a badly flattened roadkill and appeared black when it was found. When the carcass was examined in the lab, it was determined to be a cougar that was covered with road tar, presumably after it had ended up on the road.
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