BULLETIN FLORIDA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY VOL 40(3)


 Results

 Color variables were normally distributed (p<0.05 test for normality) in those
subspecies groups represented by large sample sizes, and approached normality in
less well represented groups. No observable color differences could be detected
between males and females, or between historic and recent coryi so these classes
were combined in subsequent procedures.
 PCA and MANOVA produced similar results. There was considerable
overlap among both North and South American subspecies as would be expected
given the variation present in the species overall (not shown). However,
examination of the principal components when P. c. coryi is compared to selected
North American and South American subspecies separately reveals patterns that
correspond to the qualitative descriptions given by Goldman (1946). P. c. coryi is
darker than western and northern inland populations from North America (Fig.
3a). There is virtually no difference in color measures between P. c. coryi and
coastal populations from Oregon and Washington (P. c. oregonensis and P. c.
olympus) (Fig. 3b). This also was noted by Goldman (1946, p. 237): "In dark
general color tones coryi approaches the geographically distinct olympus...." P. c.
coryi is less red than tropical subspecies from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama,
Venezuela, and Brazil (P. c. mayensis, P. c. costaricensis, P. c. concolor) (Fig.
3c), although the latter cannot themselves be separated from one another.
MANOVA showed significant differences between coryi and most other North
American subspecies, including P. c. hippolestes (p=0.002) and P. c. stanleyana
(p=0.0001), two subspecies with which it presumably intergraded in the past
(Table 1), but it could not be distinguished from northwest coastal populations of
P. c. californica, P. c. oregonensis or P. c. olympus based on color variables
(p>0.1). Among the South American subspecies, the differences in the means of
color variables for P. c. coryi are significant for all subspecies tested except P. c.
araucanus from Chile (p=0.62) and P. c. bangsi from Colombia (p=0.3) (Table 2)
 The two GLADES cats, the female cougar from Corbett Management Area
(TEST), and one PIPER clustered within the spread of P. c. coryi values in PCA;
one PIPER is outside the range of variation expressed by P. c. coryi (Figs. 3a, b).
As with the PCA, no significant differences were detected between the means of P.
c. coryi and the Everglades cats or the Corbett female with MANOVA, but P. c.
coryi was shown to be significantly different than the PIPER (p=0.02) (Table 1.)
With the exception of one captive, the PIPER and GLADES cats and test animals
clustered within the range of variation ofP.c. coryi (Fig. 3a, b; Table 1). However,
the colors of these test animals differed in ways that were not measured with the
spectrophotometer.