Food: white-tail deer, feral hog, raccoons, armadillo, small alligator, other small rodents and fowl. Deer or hog are the preferred prey and may be taken every 7 to 10 days, the diet then being supplemented with smaller prey. A panther will usually kill its prey with a bite to the throat or back of the neck, a large carcass is consumed over a period of a few days depending on the conditions. Panthers need about 3000 calories per day, pregnant females an extra 8000, + another 20,000 if they are growing kittens.

Habitat: upper dry land & wetland areas. Dry - hardwood hammock, pine flatwoods, saw palmetto & cabbage palm thickets. Wet - cypress forest, thicket swamps & freshwater marsh. Palmetto & drier scrub areas are often used for denning and day beds. Panthers will wade and swim canals and swamps if necessary to find drier, more secure resting places and hunt for food. Panthers prefer a secluded environment away from people and are less likely to frequent low agricultural areas and citrus groves.

Social Behavior: Panthers are primarily solitary animals, they do not mate for life or live in prides but they do have a social structure. Each animal has a home range or territory which it maintains and hunts within. These ranges will tend to overlap with potential mates. Males will not tolerate other males and will fight which can be fatal. A male's home range is more extensive covering of 250 sq. miles, increasing mating potential. But females are more tolerant of each other and have a range of 70 - 200 sq. miles. Their social order consists of resident/ more mature dominant animals who have established prime territorial ranges. Then you have the Transient or subdominant animals between the ages of 2-5 years, who live on the peripheries and are relegated to poorer hunting areas where there is a greater chance of human encroachment.

General: Panthers are most active at dusk and dawn, they can travel 15-20 miles a day, often moving in a zig-zag pattern, though they tend to rest during the daytime, travel & hunt during the cooler hours of the night. Panthers can swim and will cross wide bodies of water. They have a keen sense of smell and a field of vision of 130 degrees, they have excellent depth perception but lack the panoramic view that deer have.

They can run up to 35 mph but only for a few hundred yards, their preferred method of hunting is to creep up as close to their prey as possible and launch a short spring attack. Panthers do become used to man-made noises and frequently cross roads. They are attracted to woodland fires, and may stay near burned sites for days as deer and other prey are drawn to new vegetation. When humans approach an area they will either be still, disappear, or attempt to circle behind. Panthers can live up to between 12-15 years in the wild. A male can measure 7-8 feet from the nose to tail tip and weight 100-160 lbs. Females are about 6 feet in length and weight between 60-100 lbs.

• Females mature faster than males and have been known to conceive as early as 18 months, but the average breeding age is 2-3 years.
• Though conception can take place anytime during the year, the breeding season generally falls between October through March, and kittens are often born in the spring.
• When the female is ready to mate she will leave special scent markings which signal the male, they will then search each other out, mate, & may stay and hunt together for a few days before going their separate ways.
• The gestation period is 92-96 days.
• Panthers usually produce 1 litter every 2 years with an average litter size of 1-3 kittens.
• The mother prepares a den, a dry sheltered place such as a say palmetto thicket or overhang, offering protection from rain & sun.
• Kittens are born blind, their coat is spotted and eyes are blue
• Eyes open within 2-3 weeks at which time they begin to walk.
• The kittens are able to sustain their energy and body temperature for 2 days, which is an amazing feat for an infant. She can leave the kittens for up to 36 hours and travel up to 5 miles to find food.
• Kittens are helpless and remain near the den for the first 2 months of life. They are weaned and introduced to meat at 6-8 weeks, which the mother will bring back to the denning area.
• The first 6 months of the kittens' life tends to be the most dangerous. Panther kittens have a better chance of survival in a fertile area with thick vegetation for cover & large prey close to home.
• When the kittens are old enough they will travel with their mother to learn the hunting and survival skills they will need.
• At 4-6 months of age the markings begin to fade the coat become a buff color and the eyes turn from brown to pale gold.
• At 18 months they are capable hunters and will shortly leave their mother, however they may continue to travel together for a time. Eventually they will separate in search of their own territory.
• Once a territory has been established, the boundaries must be marked and maintained.