Panther (Junior Canadian Classic) Paperback – Illustrated, 1 April 2007

I read this book when I was nine and have remembered its closing paragraph ever since. I thought that I would never find a copy of it and am so glad to have been able to purchase it well over fifty years later.

The “panther” of the title is a puma who is relentlessly pursued by a human hunter. Whilst “Florida panther” is one of the many names for the puma, “panther” on its own refers to a melanistic leopard (also used for melanistic jaguars, these days). Factual errors are abundant in the book – the way pumas kill their prey is portrayed incorrectly, and wolves killing and eating members of their own pack is especially ridiculous. In addition, the edition I read was illustrated with pictures that resembled caracals far more than pumas.