Is a cougar the same thing as a black panther.?

Question

We live in the midwest and we have seen both black panthers and cougars.

Answer 1

The cougar goes by many names - cougar, puma,
panther, painter, mountain lion. It is not the same
thing as what is normally called a black panther,
which is just a black leopard. Normally colored
leopards and black leopards can occur in the same
litter of cubs.

With most animals occasional individuals may be
either albino, white, or melanic, black. This is due
to alleles of color control genes, usually recessive
alleles. To show the recessive character both
parents must be carriers of the recessive allele, and
even when they both are only one fourth of the
offspring will show the recessive color (if both
parents are normally colored). The frequency of
these color variants differs greatly in different kinds
of animals. Squirrels, for example, seem to have a
high frequency of alleles for the melanic color.
Populations of black squirrels occur in a number of
places. Usually the melanic color is rarer than the
albino, but the reverse seems to be true of squirrels.

I have never seen or heard of either an albino or a
melanic cougar, but they probably exist in very
small numbers. I don't know where in the Midwest
you are located, but in the eastern part of it, where
I am, cougars are very rare and the only reports of
black panthers I have heard of were errors. The
person reporting them had mistaken something
else for a black panther. It is very easy to make
such a mistake, especially when you come upon
something suddenly and unexpectedly. There is
no reason to be afraid of admitting a mistake. In
fact it's better to say you were wrong then insist
you were right about something extremely unlikely.
I used to do a lot of bird watching and often had
people insist that they had seen a bird that fit a
certain description when I knew very well there was
no such bird in existence. Seeing, unfortunately, is
not always believing, as has been demonstrated by
psychologists and other people quite often.

Answer 2

Cougars are not the same as a black panther. And to be honest, I doubt you saw a black panther in the midwest. However, their are some cougars and bobcats with a condition that causes their fur to turn very dark, mistaking them for a black panther. Perhaps this is what you saw.

Answer 3

No.

Cougars are always light colored. Black Panthers are dark forms of the leopard.

See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther

Also, cougars are extremely rare, but not impossible in the midwest. Black panthers should not be in the midwest unless someone had one as a pet and it escaped.

Bears and bobcats are other possibilities for what you saw.

Answer 4

No. Cougars are tan while panthers are black

Answer 5

1. the puma or cougar or mountain lion is tan and there are melanistic (black) pumas

2. the panther is of the jaguar family and leopard family and even though it is black it has spots. Panthers have their origin in asia but they have been spotted in the united states. most are black but some are white or albino.

Answer 6

No a cougar is of american origin and bulkier. A black panther is actually a leopard and of african and asian origin

Answer 7

Cougars are tan, but they are the same species as panthers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puma

Answer 8

no they are complety two diffrent animals.
you can go to yahoo and look up black panters and cougars
and youll be able to read up on them and look at their pictures.

Answer 9

Yes I think so , i'm like 75 % sure

Answer 10

They are the same creature, just different color.