"La pantera" - Can it ever be "El pantera?"

Question

The Spanish word for "panther" is a feminine noun, "La pantera." But if I want to talk about a male panther, would I call him "El pantera?"

Our school mascot is the panthers, but I don't know if I would refer to us as "Las panteras" or "Los panteras" (as there are obviously males at our school).

Answer 1

This is very hard to explain. I just want to say that your team should be called "Las Panteras", because "Los Panteras" would be more like a street gang.

what if it was an all female street gang - albert-fabrik-, Mar 31, 2010

then just "Las Panteras" - AntMexico, Apr 2, 2010

So we should not be "Los Panteras" and instead we should be called "Las Panteras" ? I just think this sounds funny because there are boys at the school! - thaibean06, Apr 2, 2010

Answer 2

Well, I googled it and found that the only mention of "El Pantera" is a Mexican TV series and comic book. "La Pantera Rosa", however, is The Pink Panther who I always thought was male. Technically, I think that the correct way to say a male panther would be "la pantera macho". I think that the TV series is definitely taking some poetic license to say "El" and I suppose that you could do the same thing and say "Los Panteras". That's a tricky one. Hopefully, a native speaker will have an opinion.