page_title: Jaguar
section_title: Color variation
hierarchical_section_title: Jaguar / Characteristics / Color variation
caption_attribution_description: English: Black jaguar (Panthera onca) in zoological garden in Edinburgh Polski: Czarno ubarwiony jaguar (Panthera onca) w ogrodzie zoologicznym w Edynburgu.
context_page_description: The jaguar is a large felid species and the only extant member of the genus Panthera native to the Americas. The jaguar's present range extends from the southwestern United States and Mexico in North America, across much of Central America, and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina in South America. Though there are single cats now living within Arizona, the species has largely been extirpated from the United States since the early 20th century. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List; and its numbers are declining. Threats include loss and fragmentation of habitat.
  Overall, the jaguar is the largest native cat species of the New World and the third largest in the world. This spotted cat closely resembles the leopard, but is usually larger and sturdier. It ranges across a variety of forested and open terrains, but its preferred habitat is tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest, swamps and wooded regions. The jaguar enjoys swimming and is largely a solitary, opportunistic, stalk-and-ambush predator at the top of the food chain. As a keystone species it plays an important role in stabilizing ecosystems and regulating prey populations.
context_section_description: Melanistic jaguars are informally known as black panthers. The black morph is less common than the spotted one. Melanism in the jaguar is caused by deletions in the melanocortin 1 receptor gene and inherited through a dominant allele.
  In Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental, the first black jaguar was recorded in 2004.
  Black jaguars were also recorded in Costa Rica's Alberto Manuel Brenes Biological Reserve and in the mountains of the Cordillera de Talamanca.
  Albino jaguars, sometimes called white panthers, are extremely rare.
caption: A black jaguar
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