Florida Panther

Florida panther, member of a population of large New World cats belonging to the species Puma concolor, family Felidae, confined to a small, isolated, and inbred group in southern Florida. This population is the only breeding group of pumas in the eastern United States. The Florida panther was traditionally classified as a distinct subspecies of puma (P. concolor coryi) and was reclassified as a population of the P. concolor couguar subspecies in 2017 after a genetic analysis. The Florida panther was one of the first animals listed under the Endangered Species Act when the law first passed in 1973, and it is recognized as the state animal of Florida.