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Handbook
1800-1899
1821Florida becomes a territory of the United States.
1830
First census enumerates 34,730 persons in the territory.
1832
Territorial legislature enacts laws providing a bounty on panthers with the amount set by the counties.
1837
John Lee Williams, a companion to Audubon, reports panthers numerous in many parts of Florida (Alvarez, 1993).
1860
Florida's human population reaches 140,424
1874
British visitor Captain F. Trench Townsend writes: "The Florida settlers attempt the destruction of all these animals [panthers] in every possible way, so they are now becoming scarce" (Tinsley, 1970).
1880
Florida's human population reaches 269,494, almost double that of 1860.
1880-1890
The promise of profits from plumes, pelts, and hides brings the first white settlers to south Florida to trade
with the Seminole Indians. Deer abounded and were hunted by the Indians both for food and trade (Kersey, 1975).
1887
The State of Florida authorizes a $5 bounty for panther scalps.
1896
Publication of Charles Barney Cory's <i>Hunting and Fishing in Florida</i>. Cory, curator of the Department of Ornithology
at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, describes the Florida panther and names it Felis concolor floridiana
He writes, "Panthers are not uncommon in the wilder portion of the state, both on the east and the west coast. The Indians report them numerous in the vicinity of the Big Cypress south of Fort Myers. During the winter of 1895 they were quite numerous near the cypress swamps about Long Hammock and Custard Apple Hammock and southwest of Lake Worth. John Davis killed six in one season (pictured above)." (Cory, 1896, p.44).
1898
1898
Rough Riders, Spanish American War and their Florida panther mascot.
1899
Biologist Outram Bangs publishes paper on 6 specimens of panther killed in Brevard and Osceola counties. He observed white flecking on back and neck, long limbs, small feet, and rich ferruginous color (Bangs 1899). He assigns it full species status as Felis coryi.