endangeredcritters:

Melanism is an undue development of dark-colored pigment in the skin or its appendages and is the opposite of albinism. 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 canids, and coral snakes. An example that may be familiar to you is the “black panther” which is actually a melanistic leopard. Above is a red fox and a melanistic fox. If you are interested, please look more into this! (I know this isn’t about endangered animals, but melanism is rather rare and very interesting to us animal lovers! I promise that for the rest of today, it will just be regular endangered animals)