Popular belief has been that panthers number fewer than 100 cats, clustered south and west of Lake Okeechobee. Some biologists contend panthers are at least a little more numerous and more widely dispersed.

Male panthers - which need as much as 200 square miles of turf to call their own - are heading north in search of new territory. A healthy young panther killed March 10 on Interstate 4 near Lazydays RV SuperCenter in the Mango area was likely looking for a new place to live.

"The side effect that nobody predicted was the pulse of dispersal [of male panthers] across the Caloosahatchee River. [Male cats] never had the motivation before, but they had to go somewhere," said Dave Maehr, associate professor of conservation biology at the University of Kentucky. Maehr, former manager of Florida's panther program, has dedicated much of his life's work to studying the panther.

One biologist said that resident panther families may already be living north of the Caloosahatchee River, roaming through ranches and forests, feeding on plentiful deer and hogs. But he has been unable to convince Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials.

"I am convinced of this, but the bottom line is that there hasn't been intensive systematic surveys," said James Layne, a senior research biologist emeritus and former executive director of the prestigious Archbold Biological Station near Lake Placid. "It takes a sustained systematic monitoring program to really document the population."

Panthers Here For Years?

Layne has kept his own records, dating to 1967, of panther sightings in Hillsborough County. "None of these records were substantiated by a recognized authority, but they at least provide circumstantial evidence for longtime presence of panthers in the area," Layne said.

Several residents say they have seen panthers in Hillsborough. Bill Roberts, a beekeeper and Tampa Fire Department retiree, said he saw a panther twice near Balm in southern Hillsborough in the past year to 18 months.

State officials contend 99 percent of panther sightings are cases of mistaken identity - bobcats, coyotes, even dogs.

Although state wildlife officials agree that panthers venture north - one panther with a radio collar ventured as far as the Orlando area in 2000 - they don't have the resources to substantiate every sighting. Officials have made it a policy not to investigate without a photo of the animal or other strong evidence.

The Lakeland office of the wildlife commission, which serves an 11-county region including the Tampa Bay area, receives an average of three calls per month involving panther sightings. After the panther death last week, the office fielded 22 calls, 80 percent about Hillsborough County sightings.

The agency's approach bothers Ginger Patterson, an avid outdoorswoman, who said she twice received a chilly reception when she reported seeing a panther cross U.S. 301 near Riverview.

"I called [the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission] the first time, and they wouldn't investigate," she said. Then she saw another panther in the same general location. "So, I [went] to the state fair to talk to game officials and convince them of what I saw. They looked at me like I was a nut and told me there are no panthers in Hillsborough County."

Patterson, who works for the state Department of Corrections, wonders if the panther she reported might be the 112-pound cat that was killed on I-4 just east of Interstate 75.

She would like the wildlife commission to investigate if more panthers are in the area.

That isn't likely to happen.

"Doing a study without first having hard evidence could turn out to be a wild goose chase and a waste of Panther Trust Fund Money, funded entirely through the sale of panther auto tags," wildlife commission spokesman Gary Morse said.

A dead panther is not sufficient evidence that there may be more cats living in the area, he said.

Some biologists said politics and legalities have prevented them from acting to sustain a viable population further north.

Maehr said panthers coming north show signs of being frustrated as they search for places to live and breed. "But it is a wasted animal if there are no females. It's like the ultimate black hole. Not only do they disappear, they never mate with anybody."

Layne and Maehr want the the state wildlife commission to bring one or two radio-collared females into South Central Florida and study how well they adapt. State officials say more land should be purchased before the introduction of more female panthers can be considered.

Maehr, unlike Layne, does not believe there are established panther populations north of the Caloosahatchee River, which flows from Lake Okeechobee near Moore Haven into the Gulf of Mexico at Fort Myers.

But he has documented young male panthers traveling in circular patterns as far as Disney World and Merritt Island north of Kennedy Space Center. "I guarantee that if [the male panther recently killed crossing I-4] had found a female outside Palmdale [in Glades County], he would have stopped dead in his tracks," Maehr said.

Layne asks if there's an ulterior motive to official contentions that panthers are basically confined to South Florida.

"State and federal governments have a lot of money and personnel invested in South Florida and they may be trying to protect their own turf and keep the focus in that area," Layne said.

Best Habitat Is South

The agency's panther project leader, Darrell Land, said "the continued presence of cats north of the Caloosahatchee River gives evidence that the area might be able to support panthers. But panthers have shown us that the best habitat is in South Florida."

Land said the cats need more forest cover than South Central Florida provides, and disputes Layne's theory that there is already viable land to support a resident population of cats.

"What are they going to do, sleep under cars?" Land said.

Maehr and Layne said there are patchy forested areas in South Central Florida, vast ranch lands and an abundance of protected park areas. Layne said much of the ranching community in Highlands County would support the panther program, unlike an experiment tried in North Florida, where the public fought to have introduced cats removed from the wild.

Morse disagrees.

"These biologists are not living in the real world," Morse said. "Panther management is not just a biological issue. It's burdened with huge political and legal issues that require significant planning and large land purchases to ensure that efforts succeed."

The state is buying more than 90,000 acres for panther habitat, he said.

Maehr said this "ivory tower" outlook will defeat panther recovery.

"There is plenty of protected habitat north of the river and the movement of females will give managers a better idea of where the most important habitat is, where restoration is needed and how well the landscape could support a population. Successful panther conservation will include large areas of private land," he said.

(CHART) FLORIDA PANTHERS

Panthers are the only subspecies of cougar east of the Mississippi River.

Panthers' favorite prey include wild hogs and deer, but they've been known to eat armadillos, raccoons, rabbits, birds and alligators.

The Florida panther once roamed the entire southeastern United States.

Panthers rarely climb trees. They are photographed in trees because tracking dogs chase them there.

Cougars range from the Yukon to the southern tip of South America. Their range includes mountains, deserts and rain forests.

The largest cougar on record, nearly 300 pounds, was a male shot in Arizona in 1917. Florida panthers are smaller than their western cousins.

Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Reporter Deborah Alberto can be reached at (813) 754-3765.