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Whole Foods Market Naples will be donating $1,366.87!!! To the Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge!
A special thanks to all who came out to shop for our cause, as well as our Team who donated their time and promotional efforts, being there to speak with customers on Earth Day! Whole Foods Market Naples was very happy to do this donation for such a worthy cause, and that Palm Beach store was able to help you out as well. Normally, Whole Foods never lets an organization have a 5% Day at two different stores within the same year let alone the same few months, so they were glad to be able to help out The Endangered Florida Panther. Thanks to everyone who participated!!
Panther encounter leaves Florida resident, Rose Flynn, spiritually moved and a memory that will last a lifetime!
Two years ago, I saw my first panther at Bear Island in the Big Cypress. It was a fleeting glance of a panther at dusk. The cat looked at me and quickly disappeared into the underbrush. I was 25 yards from the animal when he ambled off. It was a spiritual moment that I have not forgotten.
My hiking partner, Rose, was not with me at the time. I was with a fishing pal, who would sooner have root canal surgery than walk to a Starbucks from the parking lot. Rose and I had hiked throughout Everglades National Park, Fakahatchee Strand as well as the Big Cypress for years without sighting anything more exotic than a deer. Needless to say, she was insanely jealous.
On January 19, 2008, Rose and I decided to walk the Bear Island Grade to the Pink Jeep Campground. The day was beautiful, warm but not oppressive. We walked in and saw ponds thick with alligators, their babies and turtles that disappeared into the water at the slightest noise. It was glorious. Late in the afternoon, we started back to our car parked off of SR 29. The light was fading, the temperature cooled. We walked quietly but steadily being somewhat tired after a day's walk. Approximately 1 1/2 miles east of SR 29 at about 5:30 PM, Rose spotted a movement off the side of the grade about 50 yards ahead of us. We stopped. I looked through the binoculars. It was a female panther. She was looking back at us. Rose quickly focused the camera and took great photos of the animal. As you can see from the images, the panther looked directly at us, continued her journey, looked back again and then walked off into the brush.
The images say everything. The jealousy is gone.
February 7, 2008
News gets around faster than warm honey in August and several people have inquired about the recent capture of female FP160 at CREW. So this is what the buzz is all about.
Capturing a female at CREW (Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed) was one of the priorities of this years capture season. We accomplished that goal on Tuesday, February 5th. FP160 was estimated to be 5 years old, weighed 106 pounds, and showed evidence of having nursed kittens before. She had a kinked tail and cowlick. This is the first time she had been handled.
Photos from left to right: Bee stinger, and the capture of FP160
She initially treed low, about 15 feet, in a small oak tree. Many times a panther that is low in the tree is more likely to jump as opposed to when they are higher in the tree. When the dart hit she flinched her leg and, because the branch she was on was so skinny, when she went to put her foot back down she missed the branch. Having unsure footing and being so close to the ground she just decided to jump down. The dogs immediately continued the pursuit with us following close behind. The dogs stopped barking and we thought she had retreed. The dogs normally won't bark again until they eye the panther in the tree. When we got to the area where we last heard the dogs barking we were immediately met by a swarm of bees. We couldn't follow through the path the dogs took and skirted the frenzied fliers. Once on the other side of the swarm we began looking up in the trees to see if we could find the panther. It was not in any tree near where the dogs stopped their pursuit. Apparently the dogs had bayed the panther on the ground right near a bee hive and the bees took offense at their home being trampled by 6 dogs and a panther. The dogs were rolling in the mud in the nearby popash swamp trying to make the hurt go away. We quickly figured that the only place the panther could be was on the ground near the hive; it was the only place we hadn't looked (for painfully obvious reasons). I tried to move in a couple of times but got zapped and retreated. Cougar and Cunningham finally made it in and saw the panther on the ground. She was laying there with her paws over her ears. Being mostly drugged now she could barely move. Cougar grabbed her by the tail and when he did this she perked up and began to run away the best she could. Cougar led her (if that can be done from behind) away from the area where the bees were swarming. Roughly 50 yards away we controlled FP160 until the anesthesia took full affect. We noticed her ears were covered with bee stingers. She also had several around her eyes and a few other places on her head. I began removing all the stingers. When we checked her eyes we discovered two dead bees under the bottom lid of each eye. There were noticeable marks on her eyeball and we suspect she was stung once on each eye. In all I think she was stung about 100 times. We biologists averaged less than 6 stings each and I'm not sure how many times the dogs were stung. FP160 was given a shot of Benadryl to combat the stings. We checked on her the next morning at 6am and she had moved about 3/4 mile southwest of the capture location. She has subsequently moved several miles and appears, based on her movements, to be doing fine. The issue of the bees being Africanized has come up. I don't believe they were. The bees did not pursue for as long a distance or as aggressively as I've read Africanized bees do. I think it was just a matter of so many animals trampling the hive at once that got them so stirred up. However, we are going to try to capture a few to identify what kind they are. Hopefully FP160 won't suffer any long term affects, especially to her stung eyeballs. We'll be monitoring her closely for the next few weeks to make sure she's OK.
Mark Lotz, Panther Biologist
Stings on the ear of FP160
