BULLETIN FLORIDA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY VOL 40(3)


based on cranial measures and skull contour. The baseline color of one of the
Everglades cats was within range of variation of Florida panthers, but qualitative
details of the pelage markings would preclude this assignment. These two animals
had not been included in the genetic study, but came from the same breeding
compound that produced the captive animals released into the Everglades.
 Cats of questionable origin or suspect data defied classification. They
clustered apart from or on the periphery of the Florida sample. The one exception
to this is the skull recovered from Volusia County that could most confidently be
assigned to the Florida population. Individuals containing a hybrid strain, with the
exception of the Everglades cats, could not be detected within this study, unless it
is the single individual that was killed in Canal Point in Palm Beach County,
which was not included with genetics study.
 The two cats from the Everglades differ significantly from the rest of the
Florida cats in cranial profile and in cranial morphology, in addition to the absence
of the kinked tail and mid-dorsal whorl. These results are consistent with those of
the genetic studies that show the distribution of genetic markers to be strongly
partitioned between Big Cypress and Everglades ecosystems. The morphologic
differences between the Big Cypress and Everglades cats cannot be explained by
geographic separation within Florida either now or in the distant past. This would
tend to support the view put forth by O'Brien et al. (1990) that the cats inhabiting
the Everglades are descendants of the captive and probably hybrid cats that were
released into the Everglades.
 The results of genetic work conducted by O'Brien et al (1990) suggest that
 little genetic mixing has taken place between the Everlades and Big Cypress
 populations, yet no permanent physiographic barrier exists between the Everglades
 and Big Cypress systems. Virtually no differences could be detected between the
 historic P. c. coryi morphotype and the recent Big Cypress panthers. The only
 indication of change is the slightly diminished arched nasal profile in the recent
 cats. This could be the result of dilution of the character through hybridization, but
 it may also be a sampling error, or genetic drift as a result of small population size.
 Considering that perhaps 30 years has elapsed since captive cats were released into
 the Everglades, the consistent dichotomy between the Everglades cats and Big
 Cypress cats is open to conjecture.
 The Everglades is a vast and complex system, but short term cycles of
 drought and excessive rainfall do effect water levels in some regions (Duever et al
 1994). Shark River Slough, a deep marsh in the western Everglades, when flooded
 might produce a cyclical but effective barrier limiting dispersal of animals from
 either side. Radio-collared animals in the Everglades were not documented
 crossing the Slough until 1989, when a severe drought caused lowered water levels
 (Bass and Maehr 1991), and then only three of ten monitored animals ever crossed
 from the Everglades side (Bass 1997). Dispersal around the Slough to the north
 would be limited by development and habitat fragmentation, while the