Territorial
legislature enacts laws providing a bounty on panthers with the amount set by
the counties.
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).
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).
The State of Florida authorizes a $5 bounty for panther scalps.
Publication
of Charles Barney Cory's Hunting
and Fishing in Florida. 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).
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1898 Rough Riders, Spanish American War and their Florida panther mascot.
