"animal skin saddle cloths" Topic

Looking around for inspiration for saddle cloths for Alex T.G.
I see there are leopard skins.
Did they use anything else?

Could Alex have had a tiger skin prior to India?

I thought a black panther would be cool. I wonder if anyone used those?

Caspian tigers were still in the Caucasus until the last century, so tiger skins are okay.
Blank panthers are just a melanistic variant of leopards, jaguars etc. Leopards were found in quite a few accessible places.
A black fur would add variety but I think the patterned skin would look far more effective.
Lion skins would also be okay, and we know Alex hunted lions. See the story of him and Lysimachus when they were hunting.

Having seen a couple of black leopards in zoos – I know they have the same spots pattern as other leopards. Thought maybe if you exaggerated the contrast a bit – it might look kind of cool.

Definitely wouldn't look all that good on ATG's black horse, but perhaps on a chestnut for Cleitus the Dark?

Hmmm….

The Panthera Leo, was still in Greece, the Balkans, Thrace and the Ukraine until the tenth century. So a Northern European lion skin is very possible, plus the lion skins from Northern Africa.
Leopard skins were widely traded, but panther and tiger rarer, but was traded during the period.

Cheers
Matt