Leopard the 13th century AD, generally refers to the leopard, and less often to the cougar and the jaguar. Alternative origins suggested for "Panthera" include an Indo-Iranian word meaning "white-yellow" or "pale". In Sanskrit, this could have been derived from पाण्डर "pāṇḍara" ("tiger"), which in turn comes from पुण्डरीक "puṇḍárīka" (with the same meaning). The specific name "pardus" is derived from the Greek ("pardos") ("male panther"). The leopard is one of the five extant species of the genus "Panthera", which also includes the jaguar ("P. onca"), the lion ("P. leo"), the snow leopard ("P. uncia") and the tiger ("P. tigris"). This
Black panther can be littermates. It is thought that melanism may confer a selective advantage under certain conditions since it is more common in regions of dense forest, where light levels are lower. Recently, preliminary studies also suggest that melanism might be linked to beneficial mutations in the immune system. Data on the distribution of leopard populations indicates that melanism occurs in seven subspecies: Javan leopard ("P. p. melas"), African leopard ("P. p. pardus"), Indian leopard ("P. p. fusca"), Indochinese leopard ("P. p. delacouri"), Sri Lankan leopard ("P. p. kotiya"), Arabian leopard and Amur leopard ("P. p. orientalis"). Black leopards are common