Wild Black Panthers Are Appearing Across Florida — And Scientists Have No Explanation

Every few weeks, another Florida homeowner captures a large, dark cat on a doorbell camera—and calls it a black panther. In September 2024, a family in St. Augustine did exactly that. But their footage, like almost all similar recordings, was captured at night using infrared. A camera like that registers shape, movement, and heat. It does not record color. No melanistic puma has ever been trapped, shot, collared, bred in captivity, or preserved in a museum collection—anywhere in the Americas, throughout the entire recorded history of the species. And yet, Florida does produce black wild cats. Since 2024, trail cameras in the Greater Everglades have documented melanistic bobcats on film for the first time. Every black wild cat physically recovered in the state—every skin, skull, and confirmed image—has been identified as a bobcat. Not one has been a Florida panther. So, what are people seeing from their porches? This video explores the science of melanism, the genetics behind altered pigmentation, and the strange gap between what Florida photographs and what Florida reports. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ MUSIC “Artemis” by Scott Buckley Released under CC BY 4.0 [www.scottbuckley.com.au](http://www.scottbuckley.com.au) “Within Our Nature” by Scott Buckley Released under CC BY 4.0 [www.scottbuckley.com.au](http://www.scottbuckley.com.au) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SOURCES Branney et al. (2024) “Photographic Documentation of Melanism in Bobcats (Lynx rufus) in the Greater Everglades.” Ecology and Evolution. Eizirik et al. (2003) “Molecular Genetics and Evolution of Melanism in the Cat Family.” Current Biology. Frakes et al. (2015) “Landscape Analysis of Adult Florida Panther Habitat.” PLoS ONE. McKelvey, Aubry & Schwartz (2008) “Using Anecdotal Occurrence Data for Rare or Elusive Species.” BioScience. Regan & Maehr (1990) “Melanistic Bobcats in Florida.” Florida Field Naturalist. Ulmer (1941) “Melanism in the Felidae, with Special Reference to the Genus Lynx.” Journal of Mammalogy. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Florida panther description, capture, and monitoring information. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) Information about cougars in Tennessee.