WILKINS ET AL: FLORIDA PANTHER MORPHOLOGY


FLORIDA PANTHER COLOR MEASURES
 COMPARED WITH OTHER PUMA
 POPULATIONS

 C) CentraSouth America

 334
 Z, 4

 X 2

 1 2 4
 S-2
  1 4
 4

 Zi 2
 0

 -4 N redder --.

 -4 -2 0 2 4
 FIRST PRINCIPAL COMPONENT


Figure 3. Plots of the first two canonical variables representing color for cougars from North America based
on eight color measures. Numbers represent groupings (subspecies) or individuals as follow: (a) 1, coryi
(Florida); 2, missoulensis (Montana, North Dakota, Canada); 3, hippolestes (Colorado, Wyoming); 4,
kaibobensis (Arizona, Utah, Nevada); 5, mayensis (southern Mexico, Guatemala); E, Everglades. Note
that coryi is darker than western and northern inland populations, and darker but not as red as populations
from southern Mexico and Guatemala. (b) 1, coryi; 2, combined oregonensis and olympus (Washington,
Oregon, Olympic Peninsula); P, Piper cats from Everglades Wonder Gardens; T, test animal (Corbett
female). There is virtually no difference between Puma concolor coryi and animals inhabiting the northwest
coast (c) 1, coryi (Florida); 2, costaricensis (Costa Rica, Panama); 3, osgoodi (Bolivia); 4, concolor
(Brasil, Venezuela). Note that coryi is as dark as but not as red as tropical subspecies from Panama,
Venezuela, and Brasil, although the latter can not be separated from each other. Cougars from mountainous
regions of Bolivia are somewhat lighter and less red than the other three groups.


For example, one of the PIPER cats had dorsal and lateral coloration similar to
Florida cats, but graded to a bright reddish color along the flank, whereas coryi
grades to a dull clay color.

 PELAGE CHARACTERS AND KINKED TAIL
 Methods

 Two other pelage features, white flecks and a mid-dorsal whorl, have
 frequently been observed in the Florida panthers. A third unusual trait is that of
 the kinked tail, a skeletal feature that is visible externally.
 Flecks.- In most Florida cats, the head, neck, and shoulders are irregularly
 flecked with white hairs (Goldman 1946), a feature noted by Bangs (1899) as "little
 bunches of white hairs, scattered here and there." A certain amount of white