Darwin museum is proud to welcome a new rare exhibit – a taxidermy mount of a black jaguar

Darwin museum taxidermists have recently finished working on a new taxidermy mount of a black jaguar, commonly known as black panther. The museum holds one of the world’s biggest collections of animals with variations in skin color(albinism and melanism). However, this is the first black jaguar to become part of it. The skin came from the Moscow zoo in September 2016.

The sculpture (body of the taxidermy mount) was made at the Sokolov’s workshop by a sculptor Anatoly Alexandrov. Urethane foam made it possible to express the natural posture and anatomic features of the animal. The taxidermists of Darwin museum covered the sculpture with carefully preserved and restored skin, added artificial body parts (tongue, eyes, nose) and put the mount on a base imitating rocks to create an illusion of a hunting jaguar.

What is the black panther? It is the melanistic color variant of any Panthera species. Black panthers in Asia and Africa are leopards (P. pardus), and those in the Americas are jaguars (P. onca). Panthera is a genus, which includes lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars – four different species deriving from one common ancestor. They are considered to be close relatives, with mating between species possible only in captivity.

Jaguars and leopards can be born black due to a genes mutation - the excess of black pigment melanin. This color mutation can be passed to cubs. Animals with such mutation are considered to be immune to many tropical diseases, besides black color gives a better camouflage to those living in dense forests.

Jaguar is the third world’s biggest “cat” and the sole representative of Panthera genus in America, living mainly in Central America and the tropical part of South America. Black jaguars may produce either black or spotted cubs, but a pair of spotted jaguars can only produce spotted cubs.

Today Darwin museum is proud to hold one of the biggest collections of animals with aberrant color, which was gathered by the museum’s founder Alexander Kohts at the beginning of 20^th century. He realized the importance of such collection and there was nothing to stop him from building it up – he used to spend all his salary on taxidermy mounts of rare animals, as well as all money – a wedding gift from his parents – and even his heirloom – a traditional Russian teapot “Samovar”. The unique and rich collection is still being replenished. For example in 2017 the museum acquired two rare animals with aberrant color – white lion and white tigress, presented to Darwin museum as a gift for 110s anniversary. 

Darwin museum’s taxidermist Oksana Mbita Ebele is preparing the sculpture to cover it with skin.

The taxidermy mount is almost finished.

Meet the black jaguar.