Florida panthers are now coming back to reclaim territory north of the Everglades National Park. The once nearly extinct and rarely seen cats are now showing up in Florida. Panther biologist Brian Kelly and photographer Carlton Ward Jr. show the life of the Florida panther in a feature article by National Geographic magazine. Kelly and Ward discussed the process in trying to find panthers they could take photos of:
"First things first is identifying the track and knowing if it's a panther or not. And then the real trick is following it," he said. "So because they go so far, like in any given night, a panther might walk oh, a couple of miles. Maybe more. To actually follow panther tracks to find the panther itself — it's way harder than it is for any of those African animals. Way harder."
Following their routes is the best way to figure out how to find them.
"The first thing you learn are which tracks are fresh enough to follow and find the animal, and which are not. Because if you start following tracks that are not fresh enough, you're not going to catch up to the animal. You're not going to find it," he said. "So, the key is identifying the difference between a couple of hours-old track and a couple of days-old track."
On this day, Kelly is visiting public land, but most of the range of the Florida panther is on private land. Huge ranches bracket the preserve, and the cooperation of ranchers is considered essential to their survival.
"It varies," Kelly said of the attitude of most ranchers. "Some are very amenable and work with us quite a bit, some not so much. At the moment anyway, we can get the information that we need from public lands, from state land. It's not a huge priority to push the envelope with private landowners."
Panthers "need a lot of room," he said. "That's the big challenge."
Image via NPR
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but who would win between a florida man and a florida panther
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