First black jaguar born in Iran

Officials in the Safadasht Zoo, just outside the capital Tehran, posted a video on their Instagram account, announcing the birth of the rare black jaguar cub.

The cub has not been named yet, according to the officials in the zoo.

The officials wrote, “Last year, two normal female jaguar cubs were born in Safadasht Zoo, which were sent to a Zoo in Sirjan, Kerman, and the male cub has just been born.”

The black jaguar is one of many endangered species whose main habitat is Central and South America.

Melanistic jaguars, which have congenital excess of melanin in an organism resulting in dark pigment, are often confused with black panthers. The black morph, considered a favorable evolutionary mutation by most scientists, is less common than the spotted one.

Estimates indicate only 600 black jaguars are left in the wild.