Panthers, eh? Penrith, New South Wales, and Sunrise, Florida, have sports teams named after them. Peter Sellers starred in a series of films about a pink one, which was actually a diamond. And if you're specifically talking about the black variety, you could be referencing either the American revolutionary movement or Donald Neilson, one of the UK's most dangerous killers.
But what exactly is a panther? The answer partially depends upon where in the world you are. If you're in Florida, for example, 'panther' is but one of many names given to the animal also known as the puma, cougar, catamount or mountain lion; a large feline found throughout the US, Canada and Latin America. However, most everywhere else, 'panther' doesn't actually refer to a particular species.
No, in Africa, Asia and most of South America, a panther is either a leopard or jaguar with black coats. The opposite of albinism, the scientific name for this phenomenon is melanism (which literally translates as 'black pigment'). And just to make things even more confusing, occasionally pumas have been encountered with black coats and they took have been labeled 'panthers'.
And since we're talking about confusing cats, have you ever wondered why Argentina's rugby team are called the Pumas when the animal depicted on their badge is quite obviously a jaguar? It all harks back to a tour of South Africa where a journalist keen to bestow a nickname upon the visitors mistook said jaguar for another New World feline. Oh well, fair enough - it's not as if they have much in the way of wildlife in South Africa, after all...