A pumapard is the hybrid of a puma and a leopardess. In the late 1890s/early 1900s, three sets of twin cubs with a puma father and leopard mother were born at a zoo in Hamburg, Germany. One specimen was purchased in 1898 by Berlin Zoo from Carl Hagenbeck. The hybrid in Berlin Zoo purchased from Carl Hagenbeck was a cross between a male leopard and a female puma. Hamburg Zoo had one of the reverse, the one in the black and white photo, fathered by a puma bred to an Indian leopard.

In The Field No 2887, April 25th, 1908, Henry Scherren wrote "There was, and probably is now, in the Berlin Garden an Indian leopard and a puma male hybrid, purchased of Carl Hagenbeck in 1908. In his "Guide", Dr Heck described it as "a little grey puma with large brown rosettes." Another hybrid between the same species, but with a puma for sire and a leopard for dam, was recently at Stelingen; it resembled the female parent in form as may be seen From the reproduction from a photograph taken there." (From this, it is unclear whether the hybrid itself was male or its sire was the puma)

C Hagenbeck (1951) wrote that a male puma and female leopard produced a hybrid cub that was reared by a Fox terrier bitch (this was common practice to ensure a tamed individual) at Hagenbeck Tierpark, Hamburg. The hybrid was male and intermediate between the puma and leopard in colour and pattern, having faint leopard spots on a puma-coloured background. The body length was much less than either parent and the tail was long, like the puma.

H Petzsch (1956) mentioned that puma/leopard hybrids had been obtained by artificial insemination.

Dr Helmut Hemmer (1966) reported a hybrid between a male Indian leopard (P pardus fusca) and female puma as being fairly small with a ground colour like that of the puma and having rather faded rosettes.

Confusingly, it has been reported that most pumas kept as pets in the United Kingdom were black rather than tawny; the rarity of black pumas makes this extremely unlikely. This confusion arises because pumas are also known as panthers and black panthers (black leopards) were indeed kept as pets. The confusion is worsened by articles which erroneously refer to "the black puma out of The Jungle Book" (pumas are not found in India!). Unlike black panthers, supposed "black pumas" ("couguar noire") have dark upper parts, but pale bellies.

A supposed puma x jaguar hybrid was shot in the Mato Grosso, South America in the early half of the 20^th Century. It was killed by Sacha Siemel whose opinion was that it was a puma x jaguar hybrid. It was heavily built with brown spots on a fawn background and a dark stripe down its back. Pumas and jaguars are both present in the area, but occupy different niches and would be unlikely to meet, let alone mate. The description of the supposed puma/jaguar hybrid was very similar to that of the captive-bred pumapards. Successful hybridization between pumas and jaguars in captivity has been alleged (in a report by Dr Helmut Hemmer, 1966), but there is no photographic evidence. The hybrids would look similar to pumapards, but with jaguar-like, rather than leopard-like, markings and would possibly be more powerfully built.

Like lion cubs, puma cubs have rosetted markings; the supposed hybrid might have been an individual which had retained its spots into adulthood.

Intraspecific hybrids of puma subspecies are common in zoos e.g. Puma concolor capricornensis x Puma concolor concolor (International Zoo Yearbook of 1968 reports 2 males, born in Brasilia, Brazil, 1966).

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Historical reports of puma/leopard hybrids: O Antonius (1951), CJ Cornish et al (undated), C Hagenbeck (1951), T Haltenorth (1936), H Hemmer (1966), H Petzsch (1956), R Rörig (1903), H Scherren (1908)

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Many thanks to Paul McCarthy for tirelessly researching back issues of The Field and The Times.