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Where the panther's are: PORT ORANGE
· Steve Kintner, director of Volusia County Environmental Management, hears stories all the time and gets two or three new reports every year. Asked if it was possible that panthers are out there, Kintner said, “Do you know that picture taken from space of the Earth at night and you can see all the lights? ... Well, there is a lot of very dark area in Central Florida. And, if you look on a map, the southern swing of Spruce Creek runs 25 miles all the way from State Road 44 all the way down to Maytown Road and that is virtually impenetrable woods.”
· Georgia Zern of Spruce Creek says she had a close encounter with a Florida panther. It happened around 1995. She was preparing to guide a canoe trip at Gamble Place. In narrow backwaters, her way was blocked by a log. “As I was deciding what to do, I was looking off to the side into the bushes and saw a huge cat head,” Zern said. The cat looked into her eyes and stood, revealing its long tawny body and the crooked tail of a true Florida panther. “I started back-paddling out of the creek. It was too narrow to turn the canoe around, and I was so close to this animal, it could have taken one leap and been on top of me.” As she back-paddled out, the cat followed her. “I think he was just curious, but that didn’t do my heart any good.”
· There are generations of local panther stories. Smith remembers his grandmother telling stories about seeing a panther 50 years ago near the Granada Bridge. And panther sightings still crop up from Port Orange to New Smyrna Beach to Cassadaga.
Special Report: THE PANTHER PROJECT |  |