Minor. I drew and practiced painting this animal on a black gessoed canvas; later, decided to enter into this "animal" contest because my other animal painting wasn't completed and there are interesting facts about this animal. Hope you enjoy. According to some online sources, Panthers are mostly dark brown or black in color and may look like an entirely new species of large cat, but are most likely leopards or jaguars that have a black color mutation which turns their normally golden fur black to match their spots. This may have originated from the Latin name Panthera for the big cats and was probably shortened from Black Panthera to Black Panther. The difference between Panther and Jaguar is that Panther is the broader term used to refer to any big cat. ... Jaguar, on the other hand, is a panther with black spots on its body and mainly found in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. Florida panthers are an endangered species ? less than 100 are believed to exist in the wild. At birth, a Florida Panther has spots and blue eyes. As they get older, the spots start to fade and the cat's fur turns tan, while the eyes turn yellow. Since the 1960?s it has been considered politically incorrect to call a black cat a black panther.