Black “panther” photos are often more like blobfelid images than anything definitive. They do appear, most often, to look like domestic cats, not black large pumas.

“Panthers,” especially the elusive melanistic kind in America, are hard to pin down. We all know that or they won’t be cryptids.

Public domain National Park Service. Photo by Rodney Cammauf: Everglades Wildlife Images.

But Florida panthers, the specific Florida subspecies of mountain lions/pumas/cougars, are a known animal. Their Latin name is Puma concolor coryi.

One of their color phases is said to be “gray.” But where are the photographs of gray Florida panthers?

For that matter, how many Florida panthers are reported to be black?

Where are those photos? Do you have any in your photo files?

Is this the only picture of a black Florida panther, Puma concolor coryi, which anyone will bring out of the wilds of Florida?

Thanks to a question from Dave Wooten that resulted in this posting.