Coat of arms of Styria

The panther, as the heraldic animal of Styria, was first definitively used in the seal of Margrave Ottokar III in 1160.

Ottokar's state marshal, Herrand von Wildon described the flag as"ein banier grüene als ein gras / darin ein pantel swebte / blanc, als ob ez lebte“[6] (a banner as green as grass / wherein a panther floated / white, as if it were alive)In its current form, the coat of arms has been officially used since 1926 - in that year, the arms was modified to omit the flames that had previously emerged from all the panther's orifices (not only mouth and ears, but also from the phallus and anus).

A member of the state parliament, Frida Mikula, sponsored the change due to the arms' apparent "obscenity".

The heraldic animal in its pre-1926 form can be seen today in the coat of arms of the Styrian capital, Graz.

With the possible exception of the Tyrolean eagle, no coat of arms of the Austrian federal states can match it in terms of identity.