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Florida Holiday >> Animals >> Florida panther

Florida panther

Florida panther belongs to the family of cougar subspecies. This animal is considered to be an endangered species; they live in low pinelands, palm forests and swamps of southern Florida United States. Only around eighty breeding animals are present today. This is because human inhabitation has reduced the population of these animals. A small group of animas are only surviving nowadays, but most of them have heart diseases and sterility.

The Florida panthers require a large flanking habitat, 2 or 3 Florida panthers require around 100 square miles of habitat.

The Florida panther males weigh up to 130 pounds where as the females weigh up to 70 pounds. The Florida panther is somewhat smaller in size when compared with the puma, but they showcase a broader skull and long legs. Nowadays these animals are exhibiting different physical structures due to inbreeding, like whorls of fur have started to grow on their back and crook is seen at the end of their tail. Generally these animals are ocher brown on the back and they possess a soft grey color underneath, they also have white speckles on their body, neck and shoulder.

When the animal becomes around three years old they reach their gestation period, the months between December through February are their mating months. These animals gestate for about ninety days and the females give birth to 2-6 kittens. These animals were once a species of widely distributed mammals, the young ones stay for two years with its mother. The female animal mates again only after the young one leaves.

These animals are considered to be solitary ones and they usually travel in the nights. They feed on the white tailed deer, wild hog, rabbit, and raccoon and sometimes they hunt down even the birds.

Since the Florida panthers need a large forested area, the shrinking forests owe to their extinction. A lot of panthers were killed due to automobile accidents, so people today are advised to help these dying animals so that we do not lose these beautiful wild cats.