I
THE PANTHER,
Cat of Many Names
by Carolyn Brown Zniewski
18
Cenizo
Spring 2020
had arrived in West Texas the previous afternoon, but my friend
insisted that we head out to Big Bend Park early the very next
morning. We grabbed a coffee and a cinnamon roll at the coffee
shop and headed down Highway 385 to the park. The drive to the park
takes an hour, giving us plenty of time to chat. First up after we
entered the park was a short hike to a spot my friend wanted me to
see. I could see the desert dunes, limestone cliffs, an amazing desert
landscape down and across the Rio Grande to Mexico; the Chisos and
Del Carmen Mountains and Boquillas, Mexico. It was a landscape
meditation.
Along the trail I had seen rabbits, roadrunners, and turkey vultures
overhead, but the absolute prize of the morning was on our return
hike. As we came down, there was a fairly long stretch of straight
path before it curved around the hillside. As we walked along, still in
desert reverie, ahead of us about 20 yards, a panther silently stepped
out onto the path, walked down the trail a short distance and then
slipped back into the mesquite and brush. We both had stopped
walking; we were in astonishment. We waited several minutes before
we finished our hike back to the parking lot, feeling amazed by our
encounter. Folk tradition says that sighting a panther means good
fortune. We both felt truly fortunate to have seen one.
The panther is a cat of many names. It is called mountain lion,
panther, puma, cougar and catamount, to list the most common ones.
Their range is from The Yukon in Northern Canada through all of
North America, Central and South America all the way to Cape Horn
on the southern tip. There are only a few pockets of habitat left east
of the Mississippi, as farming has changed the land use in the last
150 years.
Panthers are very adaptable and can live in all sorts of climates,
from the jungles of South America and the Everglades in Florida to
the Davis Mountains and the Chihuahuan Desert climate right here
in Big Bend. They have tawny-colored fur and are two-and-a-half to
three feet tall at the shoulder. The male can weigh 120 to 220 pounds
and be up to six feet long, with a tail equal in length to their body.
The females are smaller, weighing 80 to 140 pounds, and about five
feet long. In the wild, panthers live to be eight to thirteen years of
age; in captivity they often live 20 years. Panthers are loners and only
travel as a pair when they are mating. Mom is the sole caregiver,
spending almost two years raising her kits. The size of a litter
depends on living conditions. A litter of kits can be as small as one or
as big as six, but the most common size is two. Often one of the two
die before their second year. The kits are born with dark spots, which
have disappeared by the time they are two. Babies nurse only three
months; Mom spends the next year and a half teaching her kits to
hunt.
The Panther is a solo hunter and is most active at night. They take
down prey by ambush, very similar to the way a house cat hunts.
They prefer to catch a deer about once a week and stash the carcass
for daily meals. They will hunt any animal as food from rabbits to