Editing Jaguar (section)

===Color variation===
[[Melanistic]] jaguars are also known as [[black panther]]s. The black [[Morph (biology)|morph]] is less common than the spotted one.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Brown, D.E. |author2=Lopez-Gonzalez, C.A. |date=2001 |name-list-style=amp |title=Borderland jaguars: tigres de la frontera |publisher=University of Utah Press |location=Salt Lake City, UT}}</ref>
Black jaguars have been documented in Central and South America. Melanism in the jaguar is caused by deletions in the [[melanocortin 1 receptor]] gene and inherited through a [[dominant allele]].<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Eizirik, E. |author2=Yuhki, N. |author3=Johnson, W.E. |author4=Menotti-Raymond, M. |author5=Hannah, S.S. |author6=O'Brien, S.J. |year=2003 |name-list-style=amp |title=Molecular Genetics and Evolution of Melanism in the Cat Family |journal=Current Biology |volume=13 |issue=5 |pages=448–453 |doi=10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00128-3 |pmid=12620197 |s2cid=19021807 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2003CBio...13..448E }}</ref> Black jaguars occur at higher densities in tropical rainforest and are more active during the daytime. This suggests that melanism provides camouflage in dense vegetation with high illumination.<ref name=Mooring2020/>

In 2004, a camera trap in the [[Sierra Madre Occidental]] mountains photographed the first documented black jaguar in Northern Mexico.<ref name=Dinets>{{cite journal |last1=Dinets |first1=V. |last2=Polechla |first2=P.J. |year=2005 |name-list-style=amp |title=First documentation of melanism in the jaguar (''Panthera onca'') from northern Mexico |journal=Cat News |volume=42 |page=18 |url=http://dinets.travel.ru/blackjaguar.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926024755/http://dinets.travel.ru/blackjaguar.htm |archive-date=26 September 2006}}</ref> Black jaguars were also photographed in Costa Rica's [[Alberto Manuel Brenes Biological Reserve]], in the mountains of the [[Cordillera de Talamanca]], in [[Barbilla National Park]] and in eastern [[Panama]].<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Núñez, M.C. |author2=Jiménez, E.C. |year=2009 |name-list-style=amp |title=A new record of a black jaguar, ''Panthera onca'' (Carnivora: Felidae) in Costa Rica |journal=Brenesia |volume=71 |pages=67–68 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313473228 |access-date=12 April 2021 |archive-date=29 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211129021258/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313473228_New_record_of_a_black_jaguar_Panthera_onca_Carnivora_Felidae_in_Costa_Rica |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Mooring2020>{{cite journal |author1=Mooring, M. S. |author2=Eppert, A. A. |author3=Botts, R. T. |year=2020 |name-list-style=amp |title=Natural Selection of Melanism in Costa Rican Jaguar and Oncilla: A Test of Gloger's Rule and the Temporal Segregation Hypothesis |journal=Tropical Conservation Science |volume=13 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1177/1940082920910364 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Sáenz-Bolaños, C. |name-list-style=amp |author2=Montalvo, V. |author3=Fuller, T.K. |author4=Carrillo, E. |year=2015 |title=Records of black jaguars at Parque Nacional Barbilla, Costa Rica |journal=Cat News |issue=62 |pages=38–39}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Yacelga, M. |name-list-style=amp |author2=Craighead, K. |year=2019 |title=Melanistic jaguars in Panama |journal=Cat News |issue=70 |pages=39–41 |url=https://www.academia.edu/41977728 |access-date=17 April 2021 |archive-date=29 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211129021257/https://www.academia.edu/41977728 |url-status=live }}</ref>