When you think of panthers, those black, mysterious—not to mention dangerous—leopards of the wild, your imagination may wander to obscure jungles in India or Africa, where few humans set foot. And your imagination would not be far off, for such animals are among the rarest large cats in the world. “Black panthers are uncommon,” Nicholas Pilfold, biologist with the San Diego Institute, wrote on Instagram after a 2019 sighting of black leopards in Kenya. “Only about 11 percent of leopards globally are black. But black panthers in Africa are extremely rare.” The sighting he referenced was reportedly the first panther sighting in Africa in 100 years. The black leopard, or Panthera pardus, is often referred to as a “panther.” Native mainly to the tropics of southeast Asia, and preferring to stick to the shadows of the jungle while avoiding areas of large human settlements, these wild cats are sighted occasionally, but infrequently. …