“He has been given live prey up at White Oak and has successfully killed live deer,” said Jansen. “So we feel he’ll do pretty well that way.”
Janson says mother panthers engage in limited teaching of hunting skills, but that a lot of it comes down to instinct.
“As these kittens are growing up in the wild, they probably are coming across rabbits and rats and opossums and are probably killing them just to begin to hone their hunting skills. So I think a lot of it is instinct and I think he will do well that way,” she added.
As the Florida panther population faces a shortage of suitable habitat, deadly aggression over territory is becoming more common among panthers, especially males. The possibility of this newly-released cat running into another male panther is a concern for staff at Big Cypress. The young male panther has been radio collared and National Park Service biologists will continue to monitor him closely.
Thursday, 08 December 2011 08:22
Orphaned Panther Released Into Big Cypress National Preserve
Written by John Davis-
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A young male panther was released back into the wild this week in a remote portion of the Big Cypress National Preserve in Collier County. The cat had been found orphaned more than a year ago as a small kitten.
“We got a hold of him and he was in really poor condition,” said Big Cypress wildlife biologist Deborah Jansen. “He was five months old but he only weighed 16 pounds. He was removed from the wild and transported up to White Oak Conservation Center in North Florida.”
The endangered panther spent more than a year at the wildlife facility near Jacksonville until his weight came up and until experts felt confident he could hunt and kill his own food. READ MORE
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