WILKINS ET AL: FLORIDA PANTHER MORPHOLOGY


FLORIDA PANTHER COLOR MEASURES


Figure 2. Spectrophotometer readings taken for seven regions of the pelt: three dorsal, three lateral, and a
single belly measure. Dorsal values represent the darker midline; lateral measures were taken randomly
within the defined regions and represent the predominant color exhibited by each animal. Only the mid-
dorsal and mid-lateral measurements (*) were used in the subsequent analyses.


single mid-back and a single mid-lateral measure plus a value for degree of red and
one for the degree of yellow for the mid-lateral measure. These eight remaining
variables were subjected to PCA as an exploratory method to determine if the
considerable within- and between-subspecies variation observed formed a pattern
that would warrant further analysis. MANOVA tested the hypothesis that no
overall subspecies differences existed between the means of the Florida population
and those of other North and South American populations.