It certainly is a panther and likely what is now called a Florida Panther but IIRC we imported a few Texas Panthers a few years ago because it was thought the Florida Panther was nearly extinct... So although it's certainly a panther, puma, mountain lion, or whatever you might want to call it, it may not technically be a "Florida Panther"....
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/florida_panther/wah/panther.html
Florida is covered with them now and there have been quite a few spotted in the panhandle of Florida. I personally have actually seen two and have seen numerous game camera photos of them taken locally around here. The FWC doesn't want to admit how many there actually are because they get a lot of money to manage "endangered species" and other species that are "threatened".
It's kind of like the bears. Any hunter that spends very long in the woods in Florida knows we're infested with them but FWC will never admit how many we really have.
I'm on a 1,000 acre lease here near Tallahassee and since the beginning of the year my game cameras have captured pics of 5 different bears for sure and some of the hundreds of pics I have are probably of more bears that aren't readily recognizable as different bears than the regular two sows with cubs and the 3 different boars I get pics of several times a week.
Yes... We can all get lulled into a false sense of complacency and assume that we're the top of the food chain, and we certainly are as long as we're properly armed and aware but then not many of us are as alert and aware as we should be. There have been many times that I've been walking back to my truck after dark at the end of a long afternoon of hunting and had chills run up my spine thinking how easy it would be for a bear, panther, hog, coyote etc. to jump me when they could easily see me and smell me and how vulnerable I really am. Getting a rifle into play when you're jumped from behind in the dark could be a bit of a challenge. LOL