10 Incredible Melanistic (All Black) Animals

Melanism is an undue development of dark-coloured pigment in the skin or its appendages and is the opposite of albinism. The word ‘melanism’ is deduced from a Greek word that means black pigment. Pseudo-melanism, also called abundism (Dark coloration of the skin, hair, fur, or feathers because of a high concentration of melanin) is another variant of pigmentation, characterised by dark spots or enlarged stripes, which cover a large part of the body of the animal making it appear melanistic.

Melanism related to the process of adaptation is called adaptive. Most commonly, dark individuals become fitter to survive and reproduce in their environment as they are better camouflaged. This makes some species less conspicuous to predators, while others such as black panthers use it as a foraging advantage during night hunting. Typically adaptive melanism is heritable: A dominant gene, which is entirely or nearly entirely expressed in the phenotype is responsible for the excessive amount of melanin. Adaptive melanism has been shown to occur in a variety of animals, including mammals such as squirrels, many felines and canid, and coral snakes.

1. Melanistic Big Cats aka Black Panthers

Melanism in the jaguar (Panthera onca) is conferred by a dominant allele, and in the leopard (Panthera pardus) by a recessive allele. Close examination of the color of these black cats will show that the typical markings are still present, but are hidden by the excess black pigment melanin, giving an effect similar to that of printed silk. This is called "ghost striping". Melanistic and non-melanistic animals 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.

A black panther is typically a melanistic color variant of any of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars (Panthera onca), in Asia and Africa they are black leopards (Panthera pardus), and in North America they may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars (Puma concolor – although this has not been proven to have a black variant), or smaller cats.

2. Melanistic (all black) Rat snake

Pantherophis obsoletus – also known as the western rat snake, Texas rat snake, black rat snake, pilot black snake, or simply black snake – is a nonvenomous species of Colubridae found in central North America. No subspecies are currently recognised.

Black Rat Snakes prefers heavily wooded areas and is known for having excellent climbing ability, including the ability to climb the trunk of large mature trees without the aid of branches. This snake is a competent swimmer. During winter it hibernates in dens, often with copperheads and timber rattlesnakes. This association gave rise to one of its common names, pilot black snake, and the superstition that this nonvenomous species led the venomous ones to the den.

3. Melanistic (Black) Fawn

The spectacular shot of a melanistic fawn was taken in the Northwest Hills of Austin, Texas, by renowned photographer R.M.Buquoi. Though rare anywhere, the area around Austin is a hot spot of sorts for melanistic White-tail deer… and their tails do seem to retain their characteristic white undersides.

Why is this fawn black? It’s due to a rare genetic color variation that is even more uncommon than albinism known as melanistic. Essentially, their bodies produce a surplus of melanin in their hair, skin, and retina pigment.

North American Whitetail considers this to be “the rarest of the rare. While millions of whitetails have been harvested across the continent in modern times, only a token number of cases of melanism have been documented.”

4. Melanistic (Black) Wolf

A black wolf is a melanistic colour variant of the gray wolf (Canis lupus). Black specimens are recorded among red wolves (Canis lupus rufus), and these color variants are probably still around today. Besides coat color they are normal gray wolves.

These wolf are found rarely in Europe,Asia and North America.As black colored wolves occur more frequently in forested areas than on the tundra (black coats occur in about 62% of wolves in the forested areas of the Canadian Arctic, compared with about 7% in the icy tundra, melanism was concluded by the researchers to give those wolves an adaptive advantage. The mutation’s purpose has not yet been identified.Black colour is used as camouflage, as wolves have few natural predators, and there is no evidence that a black coat colour leads to any increase in hunting success rates. Dr. Barsh observed that beta-defensin(also known as skin-antimicrobial peptide) is involved in providing immunity to viral and bacterial skin infections, which might be more common in forested, warmer environments.It has been suggested that the mutation's association with forested habitats means that the prevalence of melanism should increase as forests expand northward.Dark fur is believed to be dominant in wolves.A mating between a black and a grey wolf resulted in ten pups with dark fur out of a total of fourteen.

5. Melanistic (Black) King Penguin

Melanistic King Penguins can be partially or completely black though their white “bibs” darken much more often than the golden yellow ear patches. An extremely rare all-black penguin was photographed near Antartica by Andrew Evans of National Geographic. The king penguin doesn't look like his tuxedo-ed counterparts because of what one scientist described as a “one-in-a-zillion kind of mutation'.

Melanism is merely the dark pigmentation of skin, fur–or in this case, feathers. The unique trait derives from increased melanin in the body. Genes may play a role, but so might other factors. While melanism is common in many different animal species, the trait is extremely rare in penguins. All-black penguins are so rare there is practically no research on the subject–biologists guess that perhaps one in every quarter million of penguins shows evidence of at least partial melanism, whereas the penguin we saw appears to be almost entirely (if not entirely) melanistic.

6. Melanistic (Black) Zebra

Two Plains Zebras, one with a rare dark melanistic coloration at Etosha National Park, Namibia.This zebra is almost unrecognisable as it appears to be missing its famous stripes.This rare animal could have been mistaken for a donkey or a horse because of its lack of pattern.It is believed to be suffering from melanism, a pigment disorder that causes its original colours to change to an almost all black coat.

The picture was captured by photographer Wim Van den Heever while he was leading tourists on a photographic tour. It is said that zebras that are black, or lack in stripes are melanistic, however I believe these aren't melanistic, just simply have a pigment disorder.

7. Melanistic (Black) Red Fox

The Silver Fox is a melanistic form of red fox. Melanism is an undue development of dark-coloured pigment in the skin, and is the opposite of albinism. Silver foxes display a great deal of pelt variation: some are completely black, save for the white tail tip, while others may be bluish-grey. Wild silver foxes do not reproduce exclusively with members of the same coat morph, and can be litter-mates with the common red variety.

Red foxes, including the silver form, are one of the most widely distributed carnivorous species in the world, ranging over much of the northern hemisphere and Australia. Their abundance in a wide variety of habitats can be attributed to introduction by humans into new habitats for fox-hunting.

8. Melanistic (Black) Eastern Blue Tongue Lizards

The eastern blue-tongued lizard is a subspecies of large skink which is common throughout eastern Australia, often found in bushland and suburban areas where conditions are suitable. The lizard is known as blue-tongue because its tongue can range from bright to dark blue, and it has a habit of displaying it prominently and hissing loudly when disturbed.

The black girdled lizard is a medium-sized lizard (~7 cm long), with a depressed head and smooth head shields.The black girdled lizard belongs to the genus Cordylus, which has 21 known species and are endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. Cordylus niger is endemic to the Cape Peninsula, Western Cape, with an outlier population near Saldanha. The black girdled lizard is distinguished by melanistic (black) colouration and large, girdled, well-armed dorsal scales with pierced nostrils in the nasal shields.

9. Melanistic (Black) Seal

The common seal tends to be found in colder waters in many places around the world. Many species of seal inhabit waters in the northern hemisphere and are often found in coastal waters where there is an abundance of food and fewer number of predators.

On January 23, 2015 came in the seal sanctuary Pieterburen a black seal pup inside. It appears to be an animal with melanism, his coat is completely black. The animal was caught by fishermen and handed over to the seal sanctuary. The puppy, a young of a common seal, was wounded.Since seals are cared for in Pieterburen it's only happened seven times before there came an animal with melanism.A dark or melanistic strain of grey seals has long been present in the Scottish population, but occurrences elsewhere have been extremely rare.

10. Melanistic Eastern Grey Squirrel (Black Squirrel)

Eastern grey squirrels are medium sized tree squirrels. Males and females are similar in size and color. The fur on their back ranges from grizzled dark grey to pale grey and may have red tones. Their ears are pale grey to white. Their tail is white to pale grey. The underparts are grey to white.

Melanism is common in northern populations of this species. Some populations of eastern grey squirrels are entirely melanistic, so that all squirrels in that area are black over their whole body. If you see a black squirrel, it is most likely an eastern grey squirrel that is melanistic. Some populations of eastern grey squirrels have higher rates of albinism, which results in white fur, but this is very rare.

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