Panthers, for real…

[Jim Boyd]

In a recent Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission study, they reported 241 deer outfitted with GPS collars.

UGA apparently conducted or helped conduct the survey.

Panthers were listed as the # 1 cause of mortality in SW Florida.

During the 4 year study:

1 was killed by a hunter
7 killed by bobcats
96 killed by panthers

The study reports the big cats have multiplied ten fold since the mid 90’s.

To me, a great story for these apex predators.

I read about this on Outdoor Life website.

No reason to think it is not valid.


A cat is a bad dude.

 

[GregoryB.]

They are beautiful animals.

 

[HermanMerman]

Stone cold killers. I’m glad they are out there.

 

[jdgator]

Very cool!

...And I understand the top cause of mortality among panthers is vehicle accidents. I suspect panthers follow the deer into the suburbs and onto the highway shoulders because the hunting is easy and the deer are distracted by human activity. But then the panthers are too focused on their prey to avoid cars.

 

[Nicodemus]

Very cool!

...And I understand the top cause of mortality among panthers is vehicle accidents. I suspect panthers follow the deer into the suburbs and onto the highway shoulders because the hunting is easy and the deer are distracted by human activity. But then the panthers are too focused on their prey to avoid cars.

A fair amount of the car killed are young toms that don`t have a territory of their own. Older toms guard their territory against other toms. For a long time the Caloosahatchee River was considered the northern boundary of the panthers, but they re starting to find panthers, females with young included, north of the river.

A couple of years ago a tom was killed on I 10 just out of St Augustine.

 

[Jim Boyd]

Very cool!

...And I understand the top cause of mortality among panthers is vehicle accidents. I suspect panthers follow the deer into the suburbs and onto the highway shoulders because the hunting is easy and the deer are distracted by human activity. But then the panthers are too focused on their prey to avoid cars.

I worked and traveled for a living in Florida for 17 years, including the south end of the state.

Rode dirt bikes all over the state also.

1988 through 2005 - I never saw a single panther.

Saw plenty of gators, pigs and deer but no cats.

Wished I had…

 

[Nicodemus]

I worked and traveled for a living in Florida for 17 years, including the south end of the state.

Rode dirt bikes all over the state also.

1988 through 2005 - I never saw a single panther.

Saw plenty of gators, pigs and deer but no cats.

Wished I had…

I saw one in 1976 in the 9 Mile Swamp in Putnam County Florida. Actually saw it twice a couple of days apart. I was bowhunting. Cat never saw me.

 

[C.Killmaster]

In a recent Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission study, they reported 241 deer outfitted with GPS collars.

UGA apparently conducted or helped conduct the survey.

Panthers were listed as the # 1 cause of mortality in SW Florida.

During the 4 year study:

1 was killed by a hunter
7 killed by bobcats
96 killed by panthers

The study reports the big cats have multiplied ten fold since the mid 90’s.

To me, a great story for these apex predators.

I read about this on Outdoor Life website.

No reason to think it is not valid.


A cat is a bad dude.

View attachment 1157730

They eat deer more regularly than they did historically because of the imbalance to the ecosystem. Historically the mid-sized mammals like raccoons and possums would have made up a good portion of their diet, but the pythons have wiped out the populations of all those mid-sized mammals. That shifted the diet to almost exclusively deer and hogs. The panthers have put a major hurting on the hog population as well. They did contract with UGA specifically to assess the status and mortality factors of the deer population. None of the universities in FL have the experience that UGA has on deer mortality studies.

 

[GeorgiaBob]

The modern Florida panther seems to look and behave more like the western "mountain lion" in both size and aggressiveness than Florida panthers of a 100 years ago. Does anyone know if there was intentional interbreeding?

 

[Nicodemus]

The modern Florida panther seems to look and behave more like the western "mountain lion" in both size and aggressiveness than Florida panthers of a 100 years ago. Does anyone know if there was intentional interbreeding?

It`s my understanding that Texas lions were brought in and released to help out the gene pool of the Florida panther. Personally I wonder if there`s any difference in any of the American lions.

 

[LongBeard50]

Rarely post on here, especially this lengthy but here goes...

Great come back story for sure, and I am glad they are present in the wild as well. But, as with many things handled by the government, it has been sorely mismanaged. Firstly, a true Florida panther topped out in the 60-70 lbs range. Well, instead of transplanting a similar sized cat, the overeducated biologists elected to transplant a strain of Texas cougar that is significantly larger than the original Florida panther. While they are definitely an absolutely amazing animal, they are pure killing machines not intended to be in the south Florida landscape. When hunting in south Florida, it is amazing to see just how desolate some of the most pristine wildlife habitat can be of mammals. I am not just talking about deer here. The "panthers" have decimated the wildlife because they have been able to breed unimpeded. You hardly ever see signs of other wildlife; the tracks of deer, coon, hog, coyote, etc. are rarely found and it is attributed to the proliferation of the "panther". These places used to be filled with a mix of other mammals but that simply is not the case anymore. It is desolate in many areas.

I am certainly no expert on the topic and I gained the majority of this information from a forest ranger that we met while on a piece of public, so take that for what its worth. I am sure there are reports/studies that contradict my claims here but the hunters in south florida have major issues with the current population of panthers. FWC constantly undersells the panther population as if they are rarely seen, which is absolutely not the case.

Side-note: This same forest ranger told us a story about a panther getting hit by a car relatively recently. They took if back to the ranger facility to inspect. They put it up on the scale and it weighed 180 lbs. That is one bad mamma jamma that i dont want to run into. I would be lying if i told you i didnt briefly think about a 180 lbs killing machine stalking in the bushes every time i walk through the south florida woods before sunrise.

 

[jNick]

The guys down in south Florida are referring to the WMA’s as panther feeding stations as there aren’t any deer or hogs left.

 

[reflexman]

My brother worked for SFWMD for 14 years surveying all over the state.He saw two over that period both were in very remote areas of the glades that most people couldnt access. They had keys to gates that people would kill to get there hands on.

 

[reflexman]

Dont run out of gas in there if the pythons dont get you the panthers will.

 

[C.Killmaster]

Rarely post on here, especially this lengthy but here goes...

Great come back story for sure, and I am glad they are present in the wild as well. But, as with many things handled by the government, it has been sorely mismanaged. Firstly, a true Florida panther topped out in the 60-70 lbs range. Well, instead of transplanting a similar sized cat, the overeducated biologists elected to transplant a strain of Texas cougar that is significantly larger than the original Florida panther. While they are definitely an absolutely bada*s animal, they are pure killing machines not intended to be in the south Florida landscape. When hunting in south Florida, it is amazing to see just how desolate some of the most pristine wildlife habitat can be of mammals. I am not just talking about deer here. The "panthers" have decimated the wildlife because they have been able to breed unimpeded. You hardly ever see signs of other wildlife; the tracks of deer, coon, hog, coyote, etc. are rarely found and it is attributed to the proliferation of the "panther". These places used to be filled with a mix of other mammals but that simply is not the case anymore. It is desolate in many areas.

I am certainly no expert on the topic and I gained the majority of this information from a forest ranger that we met while on a piece of public, so take that for what its worth. I am sure there are reports/studies that contradict my claims here but the hunters in south florida have major issues with the current population of panthers. FWC constantly undersells the panther population as if they are rarely seen, which is absolutely not the case.

Side-note: This same forest ranger told us a story about a panther getting hit by a car relatively recently. They took if back to the ranger facility to inspect. They put it up on the scale and it weighed 180 lbs. That is one bad mamma jamma that i dont want to run into. I would be lying if i told you i didnt briefly think about a 180 lbs killing machine stalking in the bushes every time i walk through the south florida woods before sunrise.

The subspecies of cougar are smallest the nearest to the equator and grow larger the further north and south of the equator you go. This is typically true of most large mammals. South Texas cats are probably the closest you could get on the latitude of south Florida. The introduction of TX genes occurred in the late-1990's, but I've seen publications from the 1950's mentioning male FL panthers weighing around 160 lbs. My earlier post explains the main reason FL panthers have started eating more deer in recent years.

 

[Buckstop]

Did some appraisal work a few years back on large ranch/ag tract in eastern Collier County for the state. In touring the property we saw a fair amount of deer, some surprisingly good bucks and also bear sign. But no hogs at all. The owner said he was ground zero on the panther map, with a lot more of them than the state was estimating. Hogs, which had once been abundant, were scarce now since the panther expansion. I guess they were the low hanging fruit.

 

[Gut_Pile]

The places I have turkey hunted in south FL, that had panthers, sure as heck hadn't put any serious dent in the deer population.

We were seeing 30-40 deer per day, every day

 

[ucfireman]

So are "Florida panthers" truly a different species than say the Tx or Mt panthers? I'm talking genetically different or are they like whitetails. The same species just in different habitat grow different sizes.
Say a Ga coast or NC Coast whitetail and a Iowa whitetail. Same species, genetically but very big difference in body size. Do to food and cold hardiness as well as some other factors.
Are Key Deer genetically different than regular whitetails? I don't know.

Either way I hope that don't eat themselves out of house and home and then start starving. I like the idea of wild animals in the wild. May feel different if I lived there though.

 

[NCHillbilly]

So are "Florida panthers" truly a different species than say the Tx or Mt panthers? I'm talking genetically different or are they like whitetails. The same species just in different habitat grow different sizes.
Say a Ga coast or NC Coast whitetail and a Iowa whitetail. Same species, genetically but very big difference in body size. Do to food and cold hardiness as well as some other factors.
Are Key Deer genetically different than regular whitetails? I don't know.

Either way I hope that don't eat themselves out of house and home and then start starving. I like the idea of wild animals in the wild. May feel different if I lived there though.

To the best of my understanding, they are the same species, Puma concolor. Different subspecies, the same as an Virginia whitetail versus a northern whitetail. But for all intents and purposes, Florida panthers and Montana mountain lions are pretty much the same animal.

 

[jdgator]

A fair amount of the car killed are young toms that don`t have a territory of their own. Older toms guard their territory against other toms. For a long time the Caloosahatchee River was considered the northern boundary of the panthers, but they re starting to find panthers, females with young included, north of the river.

A couple of years ago a tom was killed on I-10 just out of St Augustine.

I have a trail cam video of a panther in an area called the Ocala National Forest. I guess it was a young bachelor. Probably too far north for a female.

If I get permission I will share the video.