The history of the Florida panther, a symbol of reverence and revulsion
Hailed as an iconic conservation success story, the Florida panther has a complex, little-known history.
One of the most important prehistoric Native American artworks depicts a Florida panther. Known as the Key Marco cat, this six-inch-high figurine has a cat’s head and the body of a kneeling human.
Archeologist Frank Cushing, who led an 1896 expedition that unearthed it from peaty muck in Marco Island, south of Naples, called it the “mountain lion god.” He praised it as being “equal in all ways to any [artifact] from Egypt or Assyria.”
It was carved by Calusa or Muspa people sometime between 500 and 1,500 years ago, made of native hardwood, finely featured, and highly polished. When I saw it at the Marco Island Historical Museum just before the COVID pandemic began in March 2020, I was genuinely awestruck.
