A year ago Sabal was a 22-week-old puma kitten arriving at Flamingo Gardens in Davie, Florida, from a Georgia facility that could not provide for her long-term care. On Sunday, September 6, she turns one, and the sanctuary is throwing her a party.
The celebration runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is included with admission.
What happens on the day
- 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.: Panther Talks and Trivia, with prizes
- 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.: panther conservation information
- 12 p.m.: the birthday celebration, when Sabal opens her gifts and eats her “cake”
- 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.: Stanley C. Panther, the Florida Panthers mascot, makes an appearance
There is free birthday cake for visitors while it lasts, and food specials for humans at the Flamingo Pond Snack Bar and Grill.
An animal’s birthday party sounds like pure fun, and it mostly is. The gifts and the cake are also enrichment: a novel object, a novel smell, a puzzle to work at. A big cat that has to figure out how to open something is a big cat doing what a big cat does, and the fact that visitors find it charming to watch is a bonus rather than the point.
Sabal is a stand-in, and the distinction matters
Flamingo Gardens presents Sabal as an ambassador for the Florida panther, and the sanctuary has been careful about what that means.
Sabal is a western cougar, Puma concolor. The Florida panther is a subspecies, Puma concolor coryi, and it is federally listed as endangered. She is the species, not the Florida subspecies. The same animal carries different names in different places: puma, panther, cougar, mountain lion.
What she can do is stand in for the ones still living in the wild. Florida’s panther population is counted by state biologists in the low hundreds, and the animals that need help tend to arrive young. Visitors who come to see a large tawny cat in a South Florida habitat are exactly the audience for the story of what has happened to that population, which is mostly a story about habitat loss and the roads that cut through what is left.
Sabal is not releasable, a condition she shares with most of the sanctuary’s residents. Her job is the one she is doing on Sunday.
If you go
Flamingo Gardens is at 3750 South Flamingo Road, Davie, Florida. The gardens are open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last admission at 4 p.m. Admission is $21.95 for ages 12 and up and $15.95 for ages 3 to 11. Members, South Florida Adventure Pass holders and children 2 and under are free.
The same ticket covers the final weekend of the “Amazing Butterflies” gallery exhibit, along with animal specialist talks, wildlife encounter presentations, the Wray Home Museum, the Butterfly Conservatory and the narrated tram tour. Specialty weekend programming can change, so it is worth checking the website before heading over.
Our coverage of Sabal’s arrival last year has the fuller story of how she got to Davie.
Quick answers
- When is Sabal's birthday celebration at Flamingo Gardens?
Sunday, September 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is included with admission.
- What happens during the day?
Panther Talks and Trivia at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., panther conservation information from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the birthday celebration at noon when Sabal opens her gifts and eats her cake, and an appearance by Florida Panthers mascot Stanley C. Panther from 2 to 3 p.m. There is free birthday cake for visitors while it lasts.
- Is Sabal a Florida panther?
No. Sabal is a western cougar, Puma concolor. The Florida panther is the subspecies Puma concolor coryi, which is federally listed as endangered. She is the species rather than the subspecies, and Flamingo Gardens presents her as an ambassador for it.
- Why does a big cat get gifts and a cake?
They are enrichment: a novel object, a novel smell and a puzzle to work at. A big cat that has to figure out how to open something is doing what a big cat does, and visitors finding it charming to watch is a bonus rather than the point.
