Yesterday, my wife and I were returining to Pensacola rom a business meeting in Destin. They had a sceduled Christmas parade along the Navarre Parkway that I decided to avoid so I turned north on HWY 87 at Navarre. Hwy 87 runs through the western edge of Eglin Air Force base and for the most part is fairly heavy timber and brush with very few buildings. Eglin covers almost a half a million acres and a lot of that area is pretty undeveloped and rugged.
As we drove along near the area where the river cuts aross the hwy, I caught a glimpse of something moving through the grass at the edge of the timber. There is a bear crossing sign right in that area and I slowed down because I thought that's what it may have been. But, when I got a good look at it, I noticed a 3 ft long tail. Thats when it it me, the thing was a cougar. I know you call them panthers down this way, but I'm originally from Colorado and we call then cougars up there. I've seen 2 of them back home in Colorado, but this was the first one I've seen down here.
I'd guess the thing had about a 3 1/2 foot body and a 3 ft tail, making it about 6 1/2 feet overall. It was a little darker in color than the ones I've seen back west and the general build of the animal was somewhat slimmer than the other ones I've seen. If I had to guess, I'd say it was probably about 110 pounds. Comparing it to a western cougar, that would put it about 1 1/2 feet shorter on the body length and about 50 pounds lighter and quite a bit darker in color, almost the color of milk chocolate vice the tan color of a western cat.
Pretty neat to see something like that when you're basically just driving home.
Cheers. :cowboy
cool
I laugh every time I hear the FWC and cat experts talk about how many there are in Fl, and especially their range. They are all over the place. I have been lucky enough to see 4. 2 of them crossing the road going to everglades city, one in Tampa(what is now Wesley Chapel), and one in Croom WMA. A guy swears he saw one in our hunt club last year and I have no reason to doubt him
Thats cool. I have't seen one but I've seen thier tracks in big cypress
That's cool that you got to see it. But I think the experts are :clown .
