Melanistic Leopards in U.K. zoos

Nanook

Nanook

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Can anyone confirm how many melanistic leopards there are left in U.K. collections? I know there is a pair at Drayton Manor and at least one animal at Exmoor Zoo. Heythrop has a couple aswell I think. Are there still any at Santago , the late Pete James collection? Or anywhere else at all ??
 
I think one of the Santago animals went to exmoor, a female. They have 1.1, the male came from Linton leaving only a non-melanistic animal at Linton.

Thrigby has a black amur leopard, born at Cotswold.

And yes, there is an older pair at Drayton Manor, plus people are saying on here that there are 1.1 at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, and possibly animals at the private Heythrop Zoo.
 
johnstoni said:
I think one of the Santago animals went to exmoor, a female. They have 1.1, the male came from Linton leaving only a non-melanistic animal at Linton.

Thrigby has a black amur leopard, born at Cotswold.

And yes, there is an older pair at Drayton Manor, plus people are saying on here that there are 1.1 at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, and possibly animals at the private Heythrop Zoo.
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Many thanks , as far as I know the pair at the Wildlife Heritage are most likely to be from Santago, or maybe just one of them came from there? Yes I think there are two at Heythrop from memory?
 
johnstoni said:
I think one of the Santago animals went to exmoor, a female. They have 1.1, the male came from Linton leaving only a non-melanistic animal at Linton.

Thrigby has a black amur leopard, born at Cotswold.

And yes, there is an older pair at Drayton Manor, plus people are saying on here that there are 1.1 at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, and possibly animals at the private Heythrop Zoo.
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I should of made it clear that it was melanistic Panthera pardus Leopards that I meant . The melanistic Amur is very unusual , I know it caused quite a stir when it was born.
 
^one was born at cotswold a few years ago

heythrope sem to have atleast 2 maybe even 3 Black Panthers (soz, could't resist using the 'average zoo visitor' word)
 
If you want to see them in a very large natural enclosure, I suggest you take the short train trip through the Chunnel to France's Parc Des Felins. When I was there last year they had three adults together. I can give an update after I go back in a couple weeks.
 
johnstoni said:
I think one of the Santago animals went to exmoor, a female. They have 1.1, the male came from Linton leaving only a non-melanistic animal at Linton.

Thrigby has a black amur leopard, born at Cotswold.

And yes, there is an older pair at Drayton Manor, plus people are saying on here that there are 1.1 at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, and possibly animals at the private Heythrop Zoo.
Click to expand...

Ah .... so that's what happened. I wondered where the black leopard was when I went to Linton a month ago.

Have just looked at Exmoor's website .... they only refer to one leopard though of course the site could be out of date. Her name is Ebony, and yes, she did come from Santago.

She's being promoted as the 'Exmoor Beast' ! :rolleyes:
 
JonnyS18 said:
Slightly off topic, but thought it was interesting to note that a black amur leopard cub has recently been born in Germany. Very unusual indeed.

Pictures of the day: 8 September 2010 - Telegraph
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Yes very interesting , but also a little worrying perhaps. I wonder whether there have been any melanistic Amur Leopards recorded in the wild? The population is so small , it is worrying that a degree of in-breeding may be occuring? There is also the problem of heart murmurs which have been found in several Amur Leopards , could this be genetically linked?
 
GillP said:
Ah .... so that's what happened. I wondered where the black leopard was when I went to Linton a month ago.

Have just looked at Exmoor's website .... they only refer to one leopard though of course the site could be out of date. Her name is Ebony, and yes, she did come from Santago.

She's being promoted as the 'Exmoor Beast' ! :rolleyes:
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Yes , Exmoors website is several months out of date , the "Exmoor Beast" promotional information was put on there a long time ago when they only had the one Leopard on show.
 
Nanook said:
Yes very interesting , but also a little worrying perhaps. I wonder whether there have been any melanistic Amur Leopards recorded in the wild? The population is so small , it is worrying that a degree of in-breeding may be occuring? There is also the problem of heart murmurs which have been found in several Amur Leopards , could this be genetically linked?
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I think the captive population is not pure, but pure enough, given how scarce they are in the wild. I think there are some North Chinese genes, can anyone confirm this?
 
As Doug Richardson wrote and put it in his book "Big Cats":

"Melanism (black colouring), is fairly common in leopards and jaguar... For many years there was some debate in zoo circles as to how to get baby black leopards. Some said that you never get a black cub from spotted parents or that a black pair can produce a spotted cub on occassion. Thanks to the work of Robinson in 1970 and Richard O'Grady, the director of Glasgow Zoo, in 1979, the arguments were laid to rest... A breeding programme at Glasgow Zoo to produce black leopards to order as opposed to chance. They (Glasgow) started with a black male and three spotted females that were suspected of carrying the black gene. Sure enough Glasgow Zoo soon began to produce a virtual flood of black leopards."

O'Grady wrote in his monograph about Melanism in Breeding Wild Cats that inbreeding was an issue, especailly to litter size, of black leopards. It was also noted that Glasgow Zoo's breeding programme of Black Leopards was so good and popular that almost all captive bred black leopards can trace their liniage to Glasgow and to those early days, whether that is true or not is not an issue, as the breeding programme most definately put the argument to rest. As to Drayton Manor impossing that the likes are rare, and that they are going to save the world's population, then that seems to be more of a marketing gimmik and well over rated....Sorry Drayton, but Glasgow got there and did it first!

Is it not highly strange and odd that 98% of all so-called big cat sightings within the UK are said to be that of "black panther-like cats". It seems that the UK population have avery vivid imagination as well as watch far too much TV !!
 
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bigcat speciali said:
Some said that you never get a black cub from spotted parents or that a black pair can produce a spotted cub on occassion.
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I'm not 100% sure I have this correct but I think...:

Spotted x Spotted = Spotted Cubs only.
Spotted(black gene carrier) x Spotted= Spotted cubs only.
Spotted(bgc)x Spotted(bgc) = Spotted & Black cubs.
Spotted x Black = Spotted cubs only.
Spotted(bgc)x Black = Spotted & Black cubs.
Black x Black = Black Cubs only.
 
Pertinax said:
I'm not 100% sure I have this correct but I think...:

Spotted x Spotted = Spotted Cubs only.
Spotted(black gene carrier) x Spotted= Spotted cubs only.
Spotted(bgc)x Spotted(bgc) = Spotted & Black cubs.
Spotted x Black = Spotted cubs only.
Spotted(bgc)x Black = Spotted & Black cubs.
Black x Black = Black Cubs only.
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That would be logical, since spotted is the dominant gene and black the recessive.
 
Pertinax said:
I'm not 100% sure I have this correct but I think...:

Spotted x Spotted = Spotted Cubs only.
Spotted(black gene carrier) x Spotted= Spotted cubs only.
Spotted(bgc)x Spotted(bgc) = Spotted & Black cubs.
Spotted x Black = Spotted cubs only.
Spotted(bgc)x Black = Spotted & Black cubs.
Black x Black = Black Cubs only.
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This takes me back to o level biology 30 years ago and the work of Gregor mendle, please bear in mind that in a cross involving Spotted [bgc] x Black
A black cub would carry some spotted genes
You have not mentioned in the above quote Black [spotted gene carrier]
A black cub from a spotted parent MUST carry some spotted genes
This is an alernative not mentioned
To quote Gregor Mendle
The first law of segregation states that ANY gamete male or female can carry the determinant gene of only one pair of alternative characteristics
The second law of free assortment states that in a cross involving one pair of alternative characteristics the characteristics will separate in the second filial generation in the relative proportions of 9:3:3:1
So two black parents with spotted genes could produce a spotted cub.
As has been said Black is the ressesive gene
PROOF
I once worked with a mixed race man from two WHITE parents
From the above quote it can be seen how this occured
However I am prepared to be proved wrong on this by someone with better qualificatios than I have
 
tigercat said:
You have not mentioned in the above quote Black [spotted gene carrier]
A black cub from a spotted parent MUST carry some spotted genes
This is an alernative not mentioned
So two black parents with spotted genes could produce a spotted cub.
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I believe this gives the following additional outcomes;

Black(sgc) x Black= Black cubs only, or Spotted & black cubs?
Black(sgc)x Black(sgc) = Spotted & Black cubs.
 
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