• DOI:10.1007/BF00958904
• Corpus ID: 5446868

Inheritance of the black form of the leopardPanthera pardus

@article{Robinson2004InheritanceOT,
  title={Inheritance of the black form of the leopardPanthera pardus},
  author={R. Robinson},
  journal={Genetica},
  year={2004},
  volume={41},
  pages={190-197}
}

• R. Robinson
• Published 2004
• Environmental Science
• Genetica

The black form of the leopard is shown to be inherited as an autosomal monogenic recessive to the spotted wild type. Pairings of black animals inter se have a significantly smaller litter size than other possible pairings. Two reasons are offered for this: (1) that black animals may be slightly more inbred than the spotted or (2) black animals may be more prone to pre-natal loss than the spotted. The significance of the latter possibility is briefly discussed in relation to the persistence of the spotted/black polymorphism for areas of South-east Asia.