[Strel]

Originally Posted by oceandreams94

Bobcats?? Bears?? wild boar??? in florida?? I never would have thought they would be there!!

Why not?


There's a whole big state in there between the coasts you know...and much of it is wilderness and farmland.

[thedeazy]

From Bradenton, FL and we got a couple good sized Gators (10-12ft) in our lake behind the house... pretty common from what i've heard.

[ddlove01]

awww, i wish we saw more animals. Before our area started developing we had rabbits in our backyard all the time. I have never seen a bald eagle in our town, raccoons yes, but they don't come up the house, no "alive" oppossums or armadillos (I know that sounds terrible!). About 10 years ago, we had deer roaming around wooded areas and also brown bears, bobcats, my husband swore he saw a panther, but I think it was very large bobcat. There's Sandhill Cranes here that just cross the street all the time without looking (the nerve, huh). They actually come all the way up to our front window. They are pretty cool.

It really depends where you live, bigger cities you will see less animals
running around.

Lisa, the armadillo you saw was probably eating grubs, they are prevalent this time of year.

[cmsvmom]

They look like bobcats, only big....

Florida Panther Net - Official Education Site

[sunrico90]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/images/1209190502 (broken link)
The Coyote (Canis latrans) : Florida's Newest Predator

[Strel]

I was at Wal-Mart on Thomasville Road North in Tallahassee this weekend, and a beautiful red fox just scampered across the parking lot, stopped and looked right at me and scampered off.

Why do people think that all of Florida is paved over and looks like Miami?

[corkywest]

I live in Belleview, 10 miles south of Ocala. A couple of weeks ago, around 1:30 A.M., I was taking my Maltese out for a walk before I retired to bed. I heard a terrible sound coming from about 50 feet from my home. I listened and not knowing what it was, I went and woke my husband. He had no idea what it was. We knew it was not a cat fight, and whatever it was, it was growling as it was killing something. I believe it to be a wild cat of some kind, possibly a cougar and it was definitely killing what we think was a dog. I haven't went out at all for a walk after dark since. I didn't think cougars were this far north, but we are not far from the Ocala National Forest. Let me know what you folks think. Thanks!

[BlueWillowPlate]

It's hard to say: cougars (and/or the Florida version, the Florida panther) are supposed to be rare to the point of virtual extinction here.
But who really knows for sure?

[beachmouse]

The original cougar range was the entire Southeast, IIRC. Could be they're slowly making a comeback.

The black bear population on Eglin AFB land seems to have really boomed in the last couple years, based on both the increase in bear-human interaction and some secondhand reports I've heard by way of Eglin's biologists. They even had to relocate one that was spending too much time hanging out by the housing area and kids' playgrounds at Hurlburt Field right next to US 98.

[SoFLGal]

We also have bobcats in North Port. My husband sees them frequently while walking the dogs. We also have boar, wild turkey, deer, armadillo, gators, moles, rabbits, etc.

A lot of people don't realize that the reason Alligator Alley is fenced is to keep the Florida Panther from getting killed. There is a fence on both sides of the road and every so often you will see a small bridge with an underpass so the panthers can cross from one side of the highway to the other. There were to many getting killed before they decided to fence.

When I was a kid and lived on Little Gasparilla Island there was a Florida Panther (http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/wildlife_conservation/imperiled_species/florida_panther/background_and_recovery/history.php - broken link) that lived out there. We would see her occasionally but she always kept a distance.