Florida panther

The Florida panther is an endangered population of the cougar (Puma concolor) that lives in pinelands, hardwood hammocks, and mixed swamp forests of South Florida in the United States. Its taxonomic status (Puma concolor coryi[1][2] or Puma concolor couguar) used to be unresolved, but as of 2017, the Cat Classification Taskforce of the Cat Specialist Group recognizes cougars in North America as belonging to P. c. couguar.[3]
Males can weigh up to 160 lb (73 kg)[4] and live within a range that includes the Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Picayune Strand State Forest, rural communities of Collier County, Florida including Golden Gate Estates, Hendry County, Florida, Lee County, Florida, Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Monroe County, Florida.[5][6] This population, the only unequivocal cougar representative in the eastern United States, currently occupies 5% of its historic range.[citation needed] In the 1970s, an estimated 20 Florida panthers remained in the wild,[7] although their numbers have increased to an estimated 230 by 2017.[8]
In 1982, the Florida panther was chosen as the Florida state animal.[9]
Category:Animals
Category:Creatures