Florida puts her name to the panther calling it the Florida Panther due to boasting the last living population in the southeastern part of the United States. (There is now strong evidence supporting the existence of a few isolated individuals roaming throughout the eastern United States.) Once with a roaming range of 30 to 40 miles, these critters now must roam in some instances as much as 400 square miles due to habitat reduction, changes in the availability of their prey and the constant construction of major highways and corridors through their habitats.

The Eastern Panthers  have a reddish brown to tan back with tan sides. They weigh between 65 to 130 pounds and grow to be 6 feet in length from their nose to the tip of their tail, on average.

The Florida species of panthers prefer to live in well-drained hammocks, pine flatwoods, or cabbage palms. Like most areas of the United States, the habitats and forests where the panther once roamed freely for hundreds of years, have been cut down for housing, citrus groves, farming and cattle ranching (one of Florida's fastest growing and largest industries). Therefore, they are now also found in Cypress swamps and other swamps. Most Panthers are very unhealthy due to inbreeding, lack of food, and pollutants from the rivers. With so few panthers now left in the wild, inbreeding can not be avoided. Thus the Texas Panther project was introduced to help propagate and help strengthen the breed. This project has been met with much difficulty due to people shooting the animals, road accidents, and once again pollutants.

Due to habitat reduction and urban sprawl, finding food becomes a difficult problem. The favorite food of the Eastern Panther is  small Florida deer. They are fond of all types of smaller critters which include rats, raccoons, wild hogs, armadillos and have even been known to eat baby alligators. Their food types vary with the habitat conditions, and indigenous wildlife of the area. Being semi-nocturnal, and seeing well at night they choose to do most of their hunting during this time. After a night of hunting, the panther makes a fresh den under a shade bush to rest during the heat of the day.

Male panthers mark their own territory by making small piles of leaves and branches then urinating on them. The territory can range from 150 miles in south Florida and 400 square miles in the mountainous areas of the southeastern United States. This territory is off limits to all other panthers wanting to hunt, and is fearlessly defended, oftentimes to death. The younger males are forced to leave the area by the older more dominant males, often having to travel hundreds of miles to find unclaimed hunting grounds. This search often leads to private lands and small commercial forests. With less and less wild habitat, the young panthers have nowhere to go.

The new settlers were fearful of this large, shy cat. They were not used to an animal that screamed loudly at night and chirped like a bird. This animal was falsely blamed for every farm animal that was killed, every child that disappeared, and anything else they could make up. In reality, no documentation in all of Florida's history has proven a single person or livestock has been killed by a panther. Even though no proof existed, the 1832 Florida Territory Legislature started to pay its residents to kill the Eastern Panther.  In 1887, the price had gone to $5.00 per scalp. As the number of settlers in Florida increased,  the wilderness areas were logged heavily and  burned. The swamps were drained and polluted.  The panther was driven to the cypress and everglade swamps. (The same treatment was given to all of the Eastern Panther species in the south and northeast of the United States.)

Now in 1999, the Ellijay Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary is well under way to save the Eastern Panther in our wonderful state of Georgia. Since 1996, we have been trying to educate and share with our fellow citizens the fate of this last large carnivore in our ecosystem. We are proud to share that we have been directly involved in the birth and raising of 5 Eastern Panthers here at the Ellijay Wildlife and Rehabilitation Sanctuary. We have had two confirmed sightings of wild panthers at the sanctuary. These sightings were probably brought on by having the captive panthers present at the sanctuary.

Craig Cylke

Director of the Ellijay Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary and Outdoor Education Program

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