The Florida panther is a large, long-tailed cat with a great deal of color variation: pale brown or rusty upper parts, dull white or buffy under parts; tail tip, back of ears, and sides of nose are dark brown or blackish. Mature male panthers examined in the wild in Florida since 1978 have weighed from 102 to 154 pounds (Roelke 1990, Roelke and Glass 1992) and measured nearly 7 feet from nose to tip of tail. Females were considerably smaller, with a weight range of 50 to 108 pounds (Roelke 1990) and measuring about 6 feet (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1987).