Floridians wisely took their time choosing a state animal. A bill to adopt the doe (female) deer as Florida’s state animal was passed by the Florida Senate in 1965. Fortunately, the House of Representatives rejected it. The razorback hog was also reportedly suggested as the state animal at one time.
In 1981, Florida school children got to vote for a state animal. The four primary candidates were the Florida panther, American alligator, manatee, and Key deer. The Key deer is a tiny variety of whitetail deer. It lives in the Florida Keys, a group of islands that rise out of the shallow sea south of Miami.
It was hard to predict which animal would win. Outside of Florida, many people had never even heard of a Florida panther or Key deer. The manatee was expected to be favored by voters living in Manatee County. On the other hand, some students might not vote for the manatee because it had already been adopted as the state marine mammal. And how many students would use the “write-in” section and vote for Mickey Mouse?
When the results were read, the Florida panther was declared the winner, with 233,000 votes. The alligator came in second, with 100,000. The Florida panther was adopted on March 29, 1982.
The Florida Puma?
So what is a Florida panther? It’s a puma. Or cougar, mountain lion, catamount, or painter. Perhaps no other large North American mammal has so many common names.
A number of large cats have been called “panther,” including lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars. “Florida panther” is simply what people happened to call the pumas living in Florida.
The Florida panther is a subspecies, or variety, of puma that is adapted to Florida’s climate and habitats. Actually, Florida panthers once ranged west into Texas. The puma’s scientific name is Felis concolor. The Florida panther’s scientific name is Felis concolor coryi.
An Endangered Symbol
The Florida panther is the rarest state animal. Wild pumas still range from Canada’s boreal forest south into Argentina. In the United States, they once ranged from Atlantic to Pacific coasts.
As North America was settled, pumas were killed along with other predators. Today, the puma is practically extinct east of the Mississippi River, except in Florida. There the animal found refuge in cypress swamps and pine and hardwood hammock forests, where it preys mostly on whitetail deer.
Many people from northern states move to Florida because of its warm climate. As towns and cities grow, less and less space is left for wildlife. Many Florida panthers have also been shot. They were protected from hunting in 1958, but some people still kill them illegally.
In 1983, a Seminole Indian chief killed a Florida panther. He argued that hunting pathers was part of his tribe’s religious traditions. He also noted an treaty signed in 1842 that established the Seminoles as a sovereign nation.
Florida panthers are also sometimes hit by cars, often at night.
Today, fewer than one hundred Florida panthers survive. They live mostly around Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve.
Because there are so few Florida panthers, they suffer from inbreeding. This causes a variety of health problems.
But people are working hard to save the Florida panther. Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge was established a few years after it was adopted as Florida’s state animal. More recently, closely related pumas from Texas were captured and released in Florida. They have mated with Florida panthers and produced young. Perhaps there is still hope for Florida’s state animal.
Carnivore Place Names
Florida boasts a number of places named Tiger and Leon. In Spanish, leon means “lion,” an animal that is still an important symbol of Spain. The name might have also been applied to Florida panthers.
Tigre, or “tiger,” was a common name for another mighty cat, the jaguar. There is evidence that jaguars inhabited Florida about the time the first Spanish explorers visited it.
Still another might Florida predator that is remembered only through place names is the red wolf. At one time, it was actually extinct in the wild. However, some animals were bred in zoos and released in the wild, though not in Florida.
In Florida, the most common place name inspired by a large carnivore is Bear. At least eleven Florida swamps are called Bear Bay. Bearthick Swamp is in Bay County. About fifty other places are named for bears, including eight streams named Bear Branch and several Bear Creeks, Bear Ponds, and Bear Islands.
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