WILKINS ET AL.: FLORIDA PANTHER MORPHOLOGY


 Results



 Whorl.- The mid-dorsal whorl was found on skins of cougars throughout
their range, but in very low frequencies compared to its presence in Florida
animals (Fig. 5, 6). It is expressed in six North American subspecies (8 of 456
specimens, or 1.75%) and four South American subspecies (21 of 145, or 14.4%).
Among the South American forms, it is more prevalent in subspecies from Chile
and Argentina (20 of 74, or 27%) (Table 3, Fig. 5). The trait was present in 12 of
16 historic specimens from Florida, dating back to the late 1800s, but was absent in
4 of 6 type series taken by Bangs in the wilderness west of Sebastian. Among all
historic and recent specimens and live captures in Florida, it is more prevalent in
the cats from southwestern Florida (92.6%) than in the cats from the Everglades
and Palm Beach County, Florida (22.2%) (Table 4). By the mid-1980s when this
study was initiated, virtually all cats in the Big Cypress exhibited the whorl,
compared to only 2 of 8 cats from the recent Everglades population. It is
noteworthy that the only skin known of the eastern puma, P. c. couguar (dated
1847 from Greenwich, Rhode Island, in the collections of the Museum of
Comparative Zoology [MCZ 42598] Harvard University) did possess a mid-dorsal
whorl, whereas the type specimen of P. c. arundivaga from Louisiana did not.
 Kinked tail.- There is no information available on the occurrence of the
kinked tail in other subspecies or in historic P. c. coryi because post-cranial
skeletons were not preserved. In Colorado, 2 of approximately 50 animals live-
captured had kinked tails, but none of the recent Texas cougars (n=23) did (R
Armstrong,). As with the whorl, kinked tails occur in very high frequencies


Table 3. Number and frequency of whorl in Florida specimens compared to combined North and South
American subspecies.

 Total Total % Frequency
 Locality Examined Whorl of Occurrence



 P. concolor coryi' 72 57 79.2


 Total North America(excluding coryi) 456 8 1.75
 Total South America 145 21 14.40
 Combined ssp. from Chile2
 and Argentina 74 20 27.00

 coryi includes all Florida specimens and living animals examined, captive specimens included.
 Combined total of Chilean and Argentinean specimens are also presented to illustrate the high
 frequency of the whor in this subspecies complex (consisting of four subspecies: araucans,
 pearoni, puma, palagonica)