ArticlePloS one2017
Mapping black panthers: Macroecological modeling of melanism in leopards (Panthera pardus).
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- First record of albinism in the black-fronted titi monkey using a dual-sensor drone: an unprecedented case in Neotropical primates.Primates; journal of primatology · 2026Article
- Integrated genomic and structural dissection of melanism in Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca).BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Unusual Suspects: Detection Probability Covaries With Vegetation Productivity and Rainfall for Camera Survey of African Leopards (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Color polymorphic carnivores have faster speciation rates.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Leopard subspecies conservation under climate and land-use change.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Heterozygosity is low where rare color variants in wild carnivores prevail.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Photographic documentation of melanism in bobcats (Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Article
- The natural history and ecology of melanism in red wolf and coyote populations of the southeastern United States - evidence for Gloger's rule.BMC zoology · 2022Article
- Molecular tracking and prevalence of the red colour morph restricted to a harvested leopard population in South Africa.Evolutionary applications · 2022Article
- A Multi-Point Identification Approach for the Recognition of Individual Leopards (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- High frequency of an otherwise rare phenotype in a small and isolated tiger population.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Potential Movement Corridors and High Road-Kill Likelihood do not Spatially Coincide for Felids in Brazil: Implications for Road Mitigation.Environmental management · 2021Article
- It's not all black and white: investigating colour polymorphism in manta rays across Indo-Pacific populations.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Melanism evolution in the cat family is influenced by intraspecific communication under low visibility.PloS one · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The geographic distribution and habitat association of most mammalian polymorphic phenotypes are still poorly known, hampering assessments of their adaptive significance. Even in the case of the black panther, an iconic melanistic variant of the leopard (Panthera pardus), no map exists describing its distribution. We constructed a large database of verified records sampled across the species' range, and used it to map the geographic occurrence of melanism. We then estimated the potential distribution of melanistic and non-melanistic leopards using niche-modeling algorithms. The overall frequency of melanism was ca. 11%, with a significantly non-random spatial distribution. Distinct habitat types presented significantly different frequencies of melanism, which increased in Asian moist forests and approached zero across most open/dry biomes. Niche modeling indicated that the potential distributions of the two phenotypes were distinct, with significant differences in habitat suitability and rejection of niche equivalency between them. We conclude that melanism in leopards is strongly affected by natural selection, likely driven by efficacy of camouflage and/or thermoregulation in different habitats, along with an effect of moisture that goes beyond its influence on vegetation type. Our results support classical hypotheses of adaptive coloration in animals (e.g. Gloger's rule), and open up new avenues for in-depth evolutionary analyses of melanism in mammals.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.