rstanton13's Identifications

aw fuck … I officially sound like an insane person. At 8:31 pm, May 24, we were driving slowly on the main park road of Everglades NP road cruising for snakes when Riley and I both clearly saw a medium sized mammal step off the road and into the grass. It was absolutely a cat, far larger than a house cat but slightly smaller than the panther statue at the Everglades visitor center. It was tan with a long tail. It was already going in the bushes while we realized what we were seeing. It briefly looked at us when I shakily took the worst iPhone photo of my life, and then disappeared into the bushes. It didn’t run or move particularly fast the whole time- no wonder they get hit by cars. It didn’t seem to be collared. I wrote this right after we saw it as proof I am not a crazy person. This will never happen again and I only have 5 pixels to show for it … I have included my incredible photo and a masterpiece of an illustration

Apparently we can road cruise a panther but not a bunch of way more common lifer watersnakes