Panthera Hybrid - Jaguar and Leopard Hybrids

Jaguar and Leopard Hybrids

A jagupard, jagulep, or jagleop, is the hybrid of a jaguar and a leopardess. A single rosetted, female jagupard was produced at a zoo in Chicago. Jaguar-leopard hybrids bred at Hellbrun Zoo, Salzburg were described as jagupards which conforms to the usual portmanteau naming convention.

A leguar or lepjag is the hybrid of a male leopard and a female jaguar. The terms jagulep and lepjag are often used interchangeably regardless of which animal was the sire. Numerous lepjags have been bred as animal actors, as they are more tractable than jaguars.

A.D. Bartlett stated: "I have more than once met with instances of the male jaguar (F. onca) breeding with a female leopard (F. leopardus). These hybrids were also reared recently in Wombell's well known travelling collection. I have seen some animals of this kind bred between a male black jaguar and a female Indian leopard:-the young partook strongly of the male being almost black.

In Barnabos menagerie (in Spain), a jaguar threw two cubs by a black leopard, one resembled the dam, but was somewhat darker, the other was black with the rosettes of the dam showing. Since melanism in the panther (leopard) is recessive, the jaguar would either have been black or be a jaguar-black leopard hybrid itself, carrying the recessive gene. Scherren continued, "The same cross, but with the sexes reversed, was noted, by Professor Sacc (F) of Barcelona Zoo (Zool Gart, 1863, 88) "The cub a female was grey: she is said to have produced two cubs to her sire; one like a jaguar, the other like the dam. Herr Rorig expressed his regret that the account of the last two cases mentioned lacked fulness and precision."

Female jaguleps or lepjags are fertile, and when one is mated to a male lion, the offspring are referred to as lijaguleps. One such complex hybrid was exhibited in the early 1900s as a "Congolese spotted lion", hinting at some exotic African beast rather than a man-made hybrid.