The hunter says the panther practically walked into his floor blind
When Jason Francis took this {photograph}, the panther was standing solely 10 toes away from him. {Photograph} by Jason Francis
Florida turkey hunter Jason Francis had a uncommon and heart-pounding encounter on Monday, when he practically known as a panther into his floor blind. Francis thinks the one motive the massive cat got here so shut was as a result of it thought he was a hen. He captured the unimaginable run-in on video and shared the footage with Outside Life on Wednesday.
“I used to be utilizing a diaphragm name, and I’m not even the perfect caller,” Francis says.
However he’s no less than a ok caller to idiot a panther, proper?
“Properly, both that or it thought I used to be a wounded hen,” he laughs.
Francis explains that he was looking at Babcock Ranch Preserve on Monday morning when he known as within the Florida panther — a distinct and rare subspecies of mountain lion that solely exists in southwest Florida. (There may be some controversy round this classification, as some say they’re simply common cougars that occurred to reside within the swamps.)
The state-owned Wildlife Administration Space is barely 20 minutes away from Francis’ dwelling in Punta Gorda, and he says it’s grow to be certainly one of his go-to spots. The general public floor supplies restricted looking alternatives, together with a brief spring turkey season that lasts solely six days and is managed by a public draw. Francis’ buddy had drawn a allow for himself and a visitor, and he’d killed his chook on Saturday, so Francis went in with him early Monday morning earlier than sunup.
“I used to be looking on my own, and I heard 4 or 5 totally different gobblers that morning, however nothing got here in,” Francis tells Outside Life. “I assumed that as quickly as they hit the bottom they stopped gobbling, so I simply stored calling and making hen yelps each three to 5 minutes.”
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Along with his again to an oak tree, Francis was sitting on the sting of a marsh with a creek working close by. His setup included a makeshift blind made of material and palmetto fronds, together with two decoys off to his left that had been largely obscured by the tall grass. Round 8:30 a.m., Francis was trying straight forward the place he anticipated a gobbler to strategy when he heard a noise instantly behind him.
“I heard a twig snap, so I circled and see [this] panther coming towards me. It didn’t see me and simply stored strolling,” says Francis, whose fabric blind was utterly open on the again facet. “I’m like, he’s gonna stroll into this blind.”
The panther was solely 10 toes away when Francis poked his head up and grabbed his telephone. He took a fast image, anticipating the cat to run away. When it didn’t, he converted to video mode.
“I simply sat there for some time, and you’ll hear me respiration within the video. My adrenaline was going loopy,” he says. “And you’ll inform within the video: He’s not trying on the digicam. He’s trying proper in my eyes.”
Finally, the panther realized the hen it was stalking was one thing else fully. Francis says he nonetheless isn’t positive if the cat acknowledged him as a human or if it was simply confused. However after a minute or so, it slowly circled and sauntered again into the woods.
Francis says he by no means even considered reaching for the shotgun that was in his lap. He was extra targeted on capturing a video so his father-in-law, Ken Prepare dinner, would consider him.
“Final 12 months I used to be turkey looking in the identical common space, and I noticed one cross a hearth lane, so I informed him and he stated, ‘Yeah, proper.’ However he believed me the subsequent day when that very same panther got here as much as his decoy about 30 to 40 yards away from him.”
![A Florida panther stands next to a turkey decoy.](https://www.outdoorlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/florida_turkey_hunter_panther_encounter_2.jpg?w=1540)
Francis explains that his father-in-law caught that encounter on video as properly. And whereas he can’t make certain whether or not it was the identical panther he videoed a pair days in the past, Francis says the cat he noticed on Monday was noticeably greater. (The cat might have grown over the previous 12 months, he admits.)
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It wouldn’t be all that stunning if Francis and Prepare dinner noticed the identical panther, since there are so few of them left within the wild as we speak. After practically going extinct within the early 20th century, the massive cats are nonetheless on the endangered species listing.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates the statewide panther inhabitants at round 120 to 230 people. FWC additionally factors out that many of the state’s breeding inhabitants is discovered south of the Caloosahatchee River, which flows alongside the southern border of Babcock Ranch.