Florida Panther: Felis concolor coryi

Informational report including taxonomy, habitat, distribution, behavior, etc. of the Florida panther. The Florida panther is one of the most endangered large mammals in the world. It is also Florida's state animal. A small population in south Florida, estimated to number between 30 and 50 adults (30 to 80 total individuals), represents the only known remaining wild population of an animal that historically ranged throughout most of the southeastern United States from Arkansas and Louisiana eastward across Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and parts of South Carolina and Tennessee. This large cat presently occupies one of the largest remaining contiguous tracts of public and private lands in the eastern United States; these lands in Collier, Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Lee, Hendry, and Glades Counties make up a contiguous system of wildlands totaling more than two million acres. Geographic isolation, habitat loss, population decline, and associated inbreeding have resulted in a significant loss of genetic variability and health of the Florida panther. Natural gene exchange between the Florida panther and other contiguous subspecies of Felis concolor ceased to occur when the panther became geographically isolated from other populations of its species. Population viability projections in 1989 and 1992 concluded that, under demographic and genetic conditions prevailing at that time, the Florida panther would likely go extinct within two to four decades. A catastrophic event could accelerate extinction significantly.