Melanistic Leopards in U.K. zoos

[tigercat]

I do not claim to be any sort of expert on this subject but also of interest may be the ARKive website.
This shows photos and videos of Panthera Pardus [Leopard] and Panthera onca [Jaguar]
Melanistic [Black] animals clearly show spots/rosetts within the Black coat.
Pele,black Jaguar at Chester also shows this if one looks carefully in good light.
My lack of IT skills prevent me from putting a link to this site here but type in ARKive to Google and it should produce the desired results.

 

[IanRRobinson]

I do not claim to be any sort of expert on this subject but also of interest may be the ARKive website.
This shows photos and videos of Panthera Pardus [Leopard] and Panthera onca [Jaguar]
Melanistic [Black] animals clearly show spots/rosetts within the Black coat.
Pele,black Jaguar at Chester also shows this if one looks carefully in good light.
My lack of IT skills prevent me from putting a link to this site here but type in ARKive to Google and it should produce the desired results.

This is normal. If anyone knows of a melanistic "spotted" cat where the normal markings aren't in evidence, I'd be very interested. Speaking of which, does anyone know what happened to the melanistic Geoffroy's cat that was at Kilverstone in the 1980s? Did it ever breed?

 

[zooboy28]

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

If the melanism of these big cats is a simple case involving only a dominant spotted allele and a recessive black allele, then there is no possibility of a black cub carrying the spotted allele (allele = version of gene), because any animal carrying a spotted allele MUST be spotted. The Leopards can therefore either be: Pure Spotted (SS), Spotted but carrying the Black allele (SB), or Pure Black (BB). A Black carrying the Spotted allele is just BS.

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

You have misinterpreted Mendel's second law, which simply states that there would be 9 Pure Spotted, 6 Spotted carriers of black allele (3 who got black from mum, 3 who got black from dad), and 1 Pure Black. So there would be (proprtionately) 15 spotted cubs and just one black cub.

Pertinax was correct the first time, and listed all possible outcomes.

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.