A second sign (that I took a photo of) has two paragraphs of information about Florida Panthers and then at the bottom is this sentence: "Animals in this exhibit are representative of the Florida Panther." I guess technically one could read that sentence to say that the animal in the exhibit is merely representing the Florida Panther subspecies...or that the animal is indeed a representative of the subspecies. Hmmm...
A second sign (that I took a photo of) has two paragraphs of information about Florida Panthers and then at the bottom is this sentence: "Animals in this exhibit are representative of the Florida Panther." I guess technically one could read that sentence to say that the animal in the exhibit is merely representing the Florida Panther subspecies...or that the animal is indeed a representative of the subspecies. Hmmm...
I would take it as the first meaning, it is a generic puma that is a stand-in to represent the Florida panther. If it was a genuine panther, I am certain the main sign label would read Florida PantherPuma concolor coryi. Even the zoo map (which you posted a photo of) says cougar and not panther.
That is likely true. However I can tell you as a cat fanatic that just based on morphology, Florida panthers definitely have a different look. I mean even South American pumas look closer to western North American pumas than Florida panthers do. I saw a pure Chilean puma recently at Paris and could not tell it apart from a California or Arizona puma if my life depended on it. Yet a Florida panther I could almost certainly distinguish. Whether or not this has always been the case or is the result of too few Florida cats inbreeding, I cannot say.
