A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (Panthera pardus) and the jaguar (Panthera onca). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been documented mostly in tropical forests, with black leopards in Africa and Asia, and black jaguars in Central and South America. Melanism is caused by a recessive allele in the leopard, and by a dominant allele in the jaguar.
The Bombay cat is a short-haired breed of domestic cat. Bombays are glossy solid black cats with a muscular build, and have characteristic large bright copper-golden eyes. The breed is named after the Indian city of Bombay (Mumbai), referring to the habitat of the Indian black leopard.
There exist two different variants of Bombay breed: the American Bombay and the British Bombay. American-type Bombays were developed by crossbreeding sable American Burmese and black American Shorthair cats, to produce a cat of mostly Burmese type, but with a sleek, panther-like black coat with copper-golden eyes. British-type Bombays are solid black-coloured Asian Self cats under the Asian group, a group of European Burmese and chinchilla Persian crosses. The British-type Bombay originated from three mismatings of European Burmese with black domestic short-haired cats.