A Tour Guides View Of The Florida Panther

By: Glenn Wilsey, Sr.

The Florida Panther, is not just a Florida cat, it is found throughout the Southern United States. This cat is just one of the wild cats of North America.

We also have two other variations of the type in the United States, the cougar in the mid-west and the mountain lion in the northern United States. In both Central and South America they call their variation the puma. All of these cats are basically the same. They differ only in how they adapted to their particular environments. South of the Florida Panther’s habitat, the puma lives close to the equator. This cat is very small, usually less than 100 lbs, and has very short hair.

Farther north is the mountain lion. This cat is huge and can weigh well over 200 pounds. The mountain lion’s hair is longer to protect it from the colder weather of our northern states. In between the habitats of the puma and the mountain lion lives the cougar, which is on the larger side of the four and the Florida Panther, which is a little, smaller. I have been lucky enough to see a Florida Panther up close just twice in my life.

The first time was while camping with a neighborhood friend, Dennis Leprad, on Loop Road. It was 1968 and we were camping at his grandfather’s house. While walking around behind Ben Wolf’s house, we saw a panther lying next to a tree in a clearing in the pine forest. I’m sure he must have seen us coming because he suddenly stood up and bolted into the bushes. The other time occurred while I was hunting north of the Tamiami Trail in the mid- 1970s. Sitting in a tree about 15 feet off the ground I saw something moving on the prairie, a panther! The big cat walked within 40 yards of me then turned and disappeared into a cypress strand.

The Florida Panther is no threat to man if we leave them alone. 80 to 90 % of a Florida Panther’s diet consists of wild hog (feral pigs) deer, raccoon, rabbit, and rats, birds, armadillos and small alligators. While our panthers once lived from Texas to South Carolina, the only place left for them to roam freely is South Florida. It’s been said that less than 50 of these cats are left in South Florida. One thing I hear all the time is, “I thought cats didn’t like water!” Well, that’s not always true. The only cats that don’t like water are house cats and that’s only because we don’t teach them to like water.

All wild cats teach their offspring that water is not only to drink, but also to wash with and to keep cool in. On hot summer days the Florida Panther will lay down in the water leaving only its head sticking out of the water. A good friend, Lyle Mitchell, told me that he was driveing his swamp buggy to his camp one hot day and stopped in the middle of a cypress strand. He said that while he was looking around he saw a panther’s head sticking out of the water. When the panther saw Lyle it jumped straight up and took off through the swamp. It was just trying to stay cool.

The panther’s habitat is small, so, we should help to maintain it. However, I don’t believe our efforts should cost us our rights to see and be a part of the natural environment. Many so called environmentalists seem to think that for nature to be as it was intended, man should be kept out of it. This is ridiculous. People, animals and machinery can get along in any ecosystem if we don’t harm or try to touch the animals.

NATURE RULES!!!

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Or Me At Gatorman1@aaof.us