Florida PantherNet

All populations of animals need food, shelter, water, and access to mates to survive. Many animals, including Florida panthers, establish home ranges (an area they use habitually) to meet these needs. Established male panthers have large well-defined home ranges that overlap with those of females. Males are usually intolerant of the presence of other males within their ranges whereas females often share portions of their range, and sometimes even the entire range, with other females. The home range of male panthers is about 520 square km (200 square miles or 128,494 acres) and the home range of female panthers is about 195 square km (75 square miles or 48,185 acres). Since the female's range is smaller, prey animals must be abundant, especially when she is raising kittens. Young males are often without a home range of their own. They are forced to live on the periphery of residents' home ranges where prey is less abundant. They have to cover more territory (an average of 620 square km or 240 sq. mi.) to survive. Referred to as transients, these males are usually prevented by resident males from breeding. The death of an established male is usually required before a transient is able to establish a territory of his own and breed.

Young females usually remain close to where they were born (less than 13 km; 8 mi.) and frequently continue to share a portion of their mother's home range. Males disperse greater distances. They face the risk of fatal fights with other males. This is known as intraspecific aggression.

Dispersal of young panthers, particularly males, has been greatly reduced in south Florida by human development. Average dispersal distance for young male panthers is 68.4 km (42.5 mi) compared to 123 km (76.4 mi) for western cougars (Maehr, Land, Shindle, Bass, Hoctor, 2002). Dispersal reduces the likelihood of a male cat breeding with a close relative. Given appropriate travel corridors, cougars may disperse over great distances. The longest recorded dispersal distance was from a cougar captured at one year of age in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He traveled to Red Rock Oklahoma, 1,067 km (663 mi) away and was hit by a train the following year (Thompson and Jenks, 2005).

Next, let's take a look at some actual home ranges of panthers.