ASIP and freckles: The same now appears to be true in felids; including the three Leopardus species presented here, ASIP or MC1R mutations have now been found to cause melanism in 8 felid species [8,35], a trend that seems likely to continue for the remaining 5 felid species (the jungle cat, the marbled cat, the bobcat, the tigrina, and the serval), in which melanism is recognized but not characterized from a molecular genetic perspective.