All populations of animals need food, shelter, water, and access to mates to survive. Many animals, including Florida panthers, establish F
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| Bigger than Disney!
The home range of a male panther is 400 times as large as the Magic Kingdom. The female's range is 150 times as large. |
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 and the home range of female panthers is about 195 square km. 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) 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) 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 58.7 km compared to 123 km for western cougars (Land: personal communication). Dispersal reduces the likelihood of a male cat breeding with a close relative. Given appropriate travel corridors, cougars may disperse over great distances. A kitten born in Wyoming was killed 2 years later 480 km away in Colorado (Busch 1996). Next, let's take a look at some actual home ranges of panthers.
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