The true bloodline Florida panther in the Everglades is one of the rarest big cats on earth on the verge of extinction. It is the Florida state animal and a state and federal endangered species. As a result, this wondrous cat's survival depends on human beings to rescue it. Will we be able to accomplish this feat?

To understand the immense value of this magnificent big cat is to know his basic natural history.

The Florida panther is one of thirty sub-species of cougars that still roam throughout the Western Hemisphere. It is also known as the mountain lion, puma, catamount, and painter. Yet this wild cat has over a hunderd different names, depending on his location.

However, scientifically speaking, it is not a panther. This word describes a big black cat. It has never been proven with physical evidence that cougars are black. Therefore, in this article the cat will be referred to as the endangered Florida cougar.

In Florida, this cat has adapted to the subtropical environment of the extreme southeastern United States. But its range has been steadily reduced in the last fifty years because of destruction of his natural habitat by over-population/over-development.

The big cat is a top predator in the food chain of Florida controlling and balancing the population of prey.

The distribution of the endangered Florida cougar is spread out in the southern third part of the state, which includes several states and federal wildlife parks. Sightings have been reported up north in the panhandle, as well as, in Central Florida. It is estimated about one hunderd cougars are left in Florida.

The territory size of the Florida cougar ranges as small as thirty-six square miles or as large as four hunderd. In the open wilds, the cougar's region is larger than in a confined section such as a cypress tree swampland. Females seem to have smaller territories than males. In some cases, their territories over-lap.

Under normal conditions, the endangered cat will stay within the confines of his territory. However, there are factors that control his roaming habits. Prey supply and where it is located. He might stay in an area for a day or two, maybe a week, and then move on in his search for food. Interestingly, the big cat is known for his stamina. He might cover ten miles per day.

The size of the big cat makes him the largest unspotted cat in North America. An adult male may weigh one hunderd and fifty pounds and be seven feet long, including the tail. He will stand from twenty inches to thirty-three inches high at the shoulders. An adult female is smaller and weighs about sixty pounds to seventy-five pounds, measuring six to six and a half feet long. Her shoulder height will be eighteen to twenty-four feet.

However, two incidents of much larger Florida cougars hunted and killed have been recorded. The largest on record was a big cat at Elbo Creek near Eau Gallie, Florida in 1875. It was nine feet four inches long and weighed two hunderd and forty pounds. Another one killed near Estero, Florida in 1939, weighed two hundred pounds.

The true bloodline Florida cougar's color ranges from chocolate brown to cinnamon. The tip of the tail and the back of the ears are dark brown to brownish black. The fur bordering and inside the ears, is grayish-white to brownish-white. The lower chest, belly, and the inside of the legs are grayish-white in sub-adults and creamy-white to brownish-white in adults.

The endangered big cat is a sprinter, not a marathon runner. He can reach speeds up to thirty-five miles an hour for short distance. A good comparison to another cat that is a long distance runner is the cheetah in the open fields of Africa.

The Florida cougar's jumping ability is magnificent. They are adept at high jumps and broad jumps with tremendous spring action, ease, and agility. There are sightings of cougars high jumping fifteen feet up. Their broad jump can be as much as forty feet.

The big cat is a solitary hunter with patience being an essential element to his success in getting close to prey for an ambush. He can sit motionless in a tree for hours with deer grazing nearby, waiting for the exact moment to spring on his prey.

The Florida cougar will take to the water and swim canals and sloughs to get to high ground.

This swamp cat will eat almost any creature it can kill. His diet includes wild pigs, turkeys, quail, oppossums, raccoons, rabbits, wading birds, small alligators, frogs, turtles, bobcats, nonposionous snakes, fish, squirrels, mice, armadillos, deer, domestic chickens and geese, and cattle.

There is no credible evidence to support the theory Florida cougars run in packs like wolves. A male and female will stay together for a short period of time for mating. A female raising cubs will train them until they are capable of going off on their own. The reported sightings of cougar packs are cetainly a female roaming her territory with two or more cubs.

Cougars in the Florida Everglades have an estimated life span of fifteen to twenty years. In captivity they can live up to twenty years.

Like most wild animals, cougars young and old are threathen by fires, floods, and starvation. The weakest memember of the litter can be pushed away by the stronger siblings and die of starvation. If a female is disabled or killed, the young cubs are doomed. Bird of prey can swoop down and grab them. Black bear can run them down and eat them. Adult cougars protecting their territories can kill each other. Young cougars out on their own not skilled in catching prey will starve. The worn-out teeth, cracked canines, or splintered claws of an old cat may make him inadequate and he will die.

However, it is evident that man-made causes are the biggest problem the endangered Florida cougar has in his habitat. It is not a pretty picture. In fact, the information is incredible. It reaches back into the 1800s. Pioneer hunters regarded the cougar as a nuisance to be slaughtered ruthlessly. They laid traps and hunted him down with dogs.

In 1832, the federal government instituted a reward for those who killed cougars. In 1837, John Lee William, who was a Florida assistant to the great bird savior John J Audubon, stated that the Florida cougar was a menace to livestock.

In 1884, southern cougars had become scarce enough to foster the assumption they had been eradicated. But, in 1887, a law authorized a $5 payment for cougar pelts just to make sure.

Early in ther 20th century, President Theodore Roosevelt did the cougar the greatest injustice of all. Roosevelt was an avid big game hunter and led a crusade against the cougar. He pronounced the cougar "the big horse-killing cat, the destroyer of deer, the lord of stealthy murder, facing his doom with a heart both craven and cruel." As a result, he led his loyal followers by the thousands into the forest and swamps to kill them all off.

During the 1930s two new threats to the cat emerged. Because of the Great Depression, cougar meat was exploited as a substitute for pork. What cougars were sighted in the Everglades were killed. Then there was the futile attempt to rid the swamps of tick fever carried by the deer population. By posioning and hunting down the deer on which the swamp cat preyed caused the cat to starve to death.

As their numbers dwindled, the cat again became the prized trophy of big game hunters worldwide who turned their attention from lions and tigers in Africa to the Florida cougar in the Everglades.

By the 1950s a cougar in Florida had become rare. Some people felt they were finally extinct. However, a few sightings stirred interest in the cat's elements of survival. For that reason alone, some took measures to protect them.

In 1968, the endangered Florida cougar was put on the state and federal endangered species list. Finally he was on the road to be removed from the list of game animals. Interestingly, Florida was the first state to take these steps, but now others have joined in.

But in modern day Florida 2000, the all time worst problem the cougar has is the disregard by the state and federal politicians and overdevelopment to save the cat from extinction. Developers covet the virgin high ground for huge complex development of new cities where the big cat roams. They think the cougar is an obstacle to commercial expansion.

An equal threat to the cat is the highways themselves that now run through cougar territory. In 2006-2007 twenty-one cougars have been killed on the roads. No one knows how many big cats have been hit, limped away into the swamp and died.

So there is a great deal more that has to be done to save the true bloodline endangered Florida cougar.

It has been asked many times why save this big cat. Well, when we save the big cat, we save the Everglades. When we save the Everglades we save all of the wildlife. In the end, we save ourselves and our children's children's childrens.

James McMullen is author of the New York Times best seller Cry of the Panther: Quest of a Species and his new book How To Awaken The Writer Within. If you would like to know more visit his website at http://www.awakenthewriterwithin.com