# Florida Panther



## joemc (Oct 14, 2009)

Comments and suggestions welcome.
Cheers, Joe


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## teneighty23 (Oct 15, 2009)

very good photo! cute cat, do you really call them FLORIDA panthers?


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## K8-90 (Oct 15, 2009)

Wow, gorgeous photo. Gorgeous animal.


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## EricD (Oct 15, 2009)

Nice capture indeed....where did you find this cat?


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## mrodgers (Oct 15, 2009)

teneighty23 said:


> ...do you really call them FLORIDA panthers?


Why wouldn't he?  He is in Florida, thus I would guess the cat is also in Florida.

Beautiful cat and great photo.

If it was a Pennsylvania Panther, then you would have an exceptional photo.  The game commission here insists that there are no panthers (or mountain lions as they are called in this area, cougar would also be correct, they are all the same animal) in Pennsylvania.  This area use to be natural habitat, but they were supposedly all hunted out in the late 1800's.  Bobcat are natural to this area, but aren't as big.

There has been many reports lately in civilized rural areas of mountain lion sitings.  A coworker was on the news last year with a crappy cell phone photo of a large cat in someone's backyard.

I live in a very rural area.  My neighbor across the road from me said he came home from work at 2 am to find his 2 dogs tied behind the box alive, but shredded nearly unidentifiable.  The Lab was ripped open from neck to hind quarters and the hound was tore up pretty bad in the hind end.  He put the dogs down that night because there would be nothing he could do.  He said the entrails of the Lab was laying everywhere all over where it was chained up.  My neighbor said, call him crazy or an idiot if I'd like, but he swears he saw in the mud what looked like a large cat paw about the size of his hand.

A coyote would attack a dog tied up, but it doesn't sound like wounds that I would expect from a coyote.  A bear would go after any food and attack the dogs, but being a Lab, I can bet there wouldn't be any food laying there judging on how my Lab would eat an entire bag of food if it had access.  A bear wouldn't just attack a dog.

So, I may have a mountain lion (panther) running around right here in my neck of the woods.  I would love to capture one on camera, first for getting a great shot, and second for good proof to the game commission that we have mountain lions around here.


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## BmDubb (Oct 15, 2009)

Beautiful photo.. And yes, they're called Florida Panthers. Theyre actually a nuisance. They're very abundant. I was down in Florida a couple years back, fishing and a buddy of mine and myself thought we heard a woman crying for help.. We ran down the dock to the sound.. And it was one of these Florida Panthers making a god awful screetch that sounded like a woman. When we approached it, it started hissing and getting supper TICKED off.. But then ran off...


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## DigitalScape (Oct 15, 2009)

Great Photo Joe.


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## Derrel (Oct 15, 2009)

The FLorida panther is one of 30 cougar subspecies,and is endangered.
Florida Panther

and from wikipedia,
"In the United States east of the Mississippi River, the only unequivocally known cougar population is the Florida panther. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service recognizes both an Eastern cougar and the Florida panther, affording protection under the Endangered Species Act.[59][60] Certain taxonomic authorities have collapsed both designations into the North American Cougar, with Eastern or Florida subspecies not recognized,[1] while a subspecies designation remains recognized by some conservation scientists.[14] The most recent documented count for the Florida sub-population is 87 individuals, reported by recovery agencies in 2003.[61]"


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## teneighty23 (Oct 15, 2009)

looks like i need to watch more animal planet! them things have so many more names than i thought. they are mountain lions or cougars up here. im yet to have a personal encounter.


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## Scooter (Oct 15, 2009)

I have always known them as cougars or Mountain lions as well.  Regardless, very nice photo.  Thanks for sharing.


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