Florida Land Mammals: Rules to follow
The furry, live young baring animals (mammals) in Florida include squirrels, raccoons, opossums and skunks. An encounter with a skunk can ruin your day, however, this month I’m going to focus only on mammals that could be deadly. The big cats of Florida and the Black bear.
Unless I know 100% that what I’m saying is a fact, I prefer generalities and I use qualifying words such as "could" or "may." The reason is I read lots of books by so called experts, and most of the so-called experts don’t want to admit that someone else may know more about a subject than they do. Here’s where it gets dicey. When the experts don’t agree, it’s left to the reader to decide which expert they believe is more correct than the other. I’m no expert, without the benefit of scientific method, I can only report what I see every day.
I am a tour guide as you all know, and I start my tours by telling everyone to play tour guide with me. With up to 30 sets of eyes looking for things we may all see a lot more. Many of the tourists that spend time here in South Florida are here to have fun and explore. While you are staying in South Florida you may walk, jog or ride bikes in the surrounding areas of parks, recreation areas and RV parks. You could spot one of these beautiful animals. If you happen to see one of these animals there are some easy rules to remember.
DO NOT stop your activity.
This means, if you are riding a bike, jogging or walking do not stop or slow down. Just keep moving as normal. As much as you may want to stop for a cool picture; this is not a good idea.
I see Bobcats a lot here in the Big Cypress area of South Florida. I live here and have a cabin way out in the swamp, so I run across Bobcats on a regular basis. A small-pawed animal like a Bobcat may not attack, because you are bigger than what it normally eats. However, bobcats, like most wild animals, may attack if they feel threatened. When looking for food, a bobcat is looking for something small that will not put up a big fight. The Bobcat also wants to be able to drag its prey away to a place where it can eat it and not be seen. Problems occur when people don’t see these animals as a threat. A Bobcat may look like a slightly bigger than normal house cat but they are not. A Bobcat can tear you up. Because the cat is not big, some people may toss food to the Bobcat. Feeding any wild animal will make for a bad encounter with that animal later on. Sooner or later the cat will come closer to people looking for a hand out. If the cat is not showing aggressive behavior, people sometimes will drop their good sense of judgment and let the cat get closer.
This rule also applies to all pawed animals such as raccoons, opossums and skunks. These and all animals in the wild or on the out skirts of your town "WILL" bite the hand that feeds them. Just pointing at these animals, is nothing more than "sign" language telling them that you have food for them.
When people toss food to an animal, the hand is being extended out in a pointing gesture. If you point at an animal and the animal comes towards you, it may mean that someone has fed that animal. If that is the case the animal may just bite you.
I was doing an airboat tour one day and a lady shared a story with me about this subject. She told me that she went out to the everglades one day and had a great time. On the way home she stopped at a convenience store and bought a bag of chips and a drink. She sat down at a bench by her car and a raccoon walked out of the bushes. The raccoon sat up and begged for some chips so she shared her chips with the raccoon. She finished off the chips and threw the bag in the trashcan. The raccoon was still sitting up with his cute little paws stretched out. She then stretched out her hand to wave goodbye to the raccoon. The raccoon, not knowing that there was no food in her hand, grabbed her hand. There was no food in her hand and with no food in her hand the lady was now a threat to the raccoon. The raccoon latched on to her hand and shook violently, sending the lady to the hospital for stitches.
So be careful when a wild animal walks up to you all friendly.
The rules for panthers are all of the above, Don’t stop, don’t point and don’t feed. I checked, and as far as I could find, there has never been an attack by a Florida panther on a human being.
Here in Florida, it seems there is plenty of food for the panther. The Florida panther feeds on small animals, birds, fish and even things as big as deer.
The deer here in Florida are very small and easy for the panther to take down. Also there are plenty of wild pigs to prey on. The mother pig seems to only worry about the whole pack of baby pigs. If a panther attacks she will run and the babies will follow. The slowest baby in the pack becomes food for the panther.
If you spot a Florida panther, here are some things to consider.
If you stop, the cat may think you are a threat and take an attack posture.
If you go faster, the cat may see you as fleeing prey. Cats like to chase things.
I don’t believe animals can sense fear but I can understand why people may believe that. I believe that animals that hunt for a living see and attack movement and fear has nothing to do with it. That goes especially for the cats that you may encounter here in the Big Cypress.
If a Florida panther is watching you, and it sees the slightest change in your routine, then it may act on your response. If you spot a Florida panther and you are not in a car for protection, keep your eye on the cat and continue what you were doing. If you do anything different such as stop or change direction or speed you may trigger that prey response and the cat will chase you down.
The same rules apply if you spot a Black bear.
As with panthers, there has never been a documented attack on humans by a black bear in Florida. Again, that is most likely due to the fact that there is plenty of food for the bear in the wild. Most people only spot a black bear after it has spotted them and is already running away. In the northern United States, bears stuff themselves just before winter and then hibernate for the winter. The bears in Florida stuff themselves before winter too, but they don’t hibernate. Because they don’t sleep for the winter, they stay as big as they were before winter.
Just admire the animal as you go by. Think about how cool it is to see one of these magnificent animals in the wild and don’t stop, don’t point and don’t feed.
If you encounter "any" wild animal remember to look at your surroundings. It the animal looks like it is cornered and has no way to run away from you then it may start in your direction. Remain calm and slowly give the animal all the room you can give it to get by you.
Respect "ALL" animals and don’t feed them.
Also, remember there have been no recorded attacks on people from these animals in Florida but there have been recorded attacks on people in other states by Black bears and Panthers. In other states the panther is called a Mountain lion or a Cougar. It may be because of the terrain. In other states people and animals that encounter each other may not have the options to get away from each other because of hilly terrain or narrow paths. A bear or a panther doesn’t consider you food because you are not what they are used to eating, but if it can’t get away from you or if you move like prey you could be attacked. Bears and Panthers don’t see people as food unless someone has been feeding them so don’t feed them.
Again, although there has never been an attack by a panther or bear on a human in Florida, big cats and bears have attacked humans in other states.
In some cases people are attacked because of mistaken identity.
I wish I had the gentleman’s name, because one day, a man from California shared a story with me. He had been attacked by a cougar while riding his bike in the mountains north of Los Angeles, California. He told me that he thinks the cougar may have thought he was a prey animal running along the trail. As he rode his bike he could see that there were thick bushes on both sides of the trail. He could just see over the bushes and into the forest. He never saw the cat until it was in mid-air. The cat jumped over the bushes on a collision course for him. A cougar can jump 20 feet straight up to a tree limb. 20 feet is the distance across a two-lane highway. As the cat was in the air, half way to jumping on him, he said the cat realized it’s mistake and was putting on the brakes in mid-air. He said he could almost read the cats mind. The cat had already committed it’s self to the jump, but realized it was a human he was going to land on, and did it’s best to stop but couldn’t. He said that he knew the cat was going to land on him and started to cover up, wrapping his hands around his head. The cat swatted at him while also trying to push away from him to get away. The guy had some great scars to show. One arm had deep scratches and he said he had more on his back. As I mentioned before, I think the cougar was just responding to movement when it jumped and when this man turned out not to be a rabbit or something that the cougar would normally eat, it reacted out of fear. This man was very lucky that he was not killed.
I never get bored with my job, it is so much fun to share my view of nature and hear the views of others. If the guy from California happens to read this story, contact me, I would love to hear from you.
One more thing before I end this month’s story.
Ya’ll know I’m not a scientist and don’t usually get into scientific explanations. Because this cat we are talking about is referred to by different names, mountain lion, cougar, catamount, puma and panther, I feel there needs to be more explanation.
Where the cat lives determines what it is called. All of the big cats in North America are known to scientists as Puma Concolor Couguar and then further identified as a geographical subspecies such as
Felis Concolor Californica, for the cat that accidentally attacked the gentleman from California.
Scientific name of the Florida Panther: Felis Concolor Coryi
(formerly Felis Concolor Floridana.)
Felis means cat.
Concolor means having one color.
Coryi, comes from a naturalist and hunter, Charles Barney Cory, who first described the Florida panther as a subspecies of the North American Cougar in 1896, in his book, "Hunting and Fishing in Florida." In his honor, scientists changed the Florida Panther’s name from Floridana to Coryi. Sorry, but I don’t know exactly when they did that.
If you would like to read more go to;
www.floridaconservation.org/panther
As usual, thanks for stopping by the Airboats and Animals of Florida website. The staff and I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit.
Glenn W. Wilsey Sr.
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