four types of leopard

Four types of the common leopard, photographed September 23-24 at Parc Felins. Pictured from left to right are amur leopard, sri lanka leopard, black leopard, persian leopard.

The only other place I have seen four types of leopard is Exotic Feline Breeding Compound (California), which has all of these except sri lanka (having north china instead).

Is the black leopard African?

KCZooFan said:

Is the black leopard African?

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Most, if not all, black leopards in zoos are hybrids of various subspecies. As I understand it, they have been in zoos since the old days when these type of things were not tracked. However, melanism ("blackness") in leopards is found mainly is Asia and very rarely in Africa. In fact, I used to think African leopards were never black until Sun Wukong on this site showed me a video clip of one filmed in the Aberdares in Kenya (the same area that is famous for its black servals).

However, it is so rare in Africa that it is almost guaranteed all zoo black leopards are of various Asian origins. Of course, some may have been paired with (yellow) Africans long ago, thus mixing in to the gene pool, but a pure African black leopard will likely never be seen in a modern zoo, even though many zoos label them as "African leopards."

The only pure subspecies black leopard I have personally seen was an indochinese leopard (P.p. delacouri) years ago at the Phoenix Zoo.

Arizona Docent said:

The only pure subspecies black leopard I have personally seen was an indochinese leopard (P.p. delacouri) years ago at the Phoenix Zoo.

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He was an amazing cat too. He was the mascot of a military squadron, when he grew too large to handle we was gifted to the Phoenix Zoo.