• Barbara Keith
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  • Added 19 Dec 2009
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Melancholy

In jaguars, the mutation is dominant hence black jaguars can produce both black and spotted cubs, but spotted jaguars only produce spotted cubs when bred together. In leopards, the mutation is recessive and some spotted leopards can produce black cubs (if both parents carry the gene in hidden form) while black leopards always breed true when mated together. In stuffed mounted specimens, black leopards often fade to a rusty color, but black jaguars fade to chocolate brown. The black jaguar was considered a separate species by indigenous peoples. The gene is incompletely dominant. Individuals with two copies of the gene are darker (the black background colour is more dense) than individuals with just one copy whose background colour may appear to be dark charcoal rather than black. A black jaguar called Diablo has been accidentally crossed with a lioness named Lola at Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, Barrie, Canada resulting in a charcoal coloured black jaglion female as well as a tan coloured spotted jaglion male. It therefore cannot be said that the melanistic gene is dominant over lion coloration (Wikipedia).

5 Comments

Anonymous Guest

v blair 20 Dec 2009

Beautiful!!

ruth sears 20 Dec 2009

one of my favorite big cats,I adopted one of these,well,through wwf by donation to help with habitat conservation and more patrolling against poaching,they are all vanishing quickly and is heartbreaking.you did an awesome job on this one,one of your best so far,but a hard choice to be sure.

Susanna Acutis 19 Dec 2009

...WWWOW!!!

Maria Anna Machado 19 Dec 2009

FANTASTIC...

Tammy Kuenzli 19 Dec 2009

The emotion you get across in this artwork is amazing... and the colors as well... beautiful, Barbara