Panthers

Steve Beuerlein threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns as he methodically picked apart the 49ers' young secondary in leading Carolina to a 34-16 victory Sunday over San Francisco. The Panthers jump-started their struggling offense with their longest drive of the season, a dominating 16-play, 80-yard march. Beuerlein completed six straight passes to move the Panthers to the 22-yard line and finished the drive with a three-yard pass play to Isaac Byrd to give Carolina a 7-0 lead.

An animal trainer who was bitten by a black panther during a movie shoot was listed in fair condition Wednesday after surgery, a spokesman for UCLA Medical Center said. Silvie Rodriguez, 46, had surgery Tuesday night to repair her right ankle, which was broken by a bite from the panther while on the Malibu Creek State Park set of the movie "Swiss Family Robinson."

A new genetic study shows most of the 30 to 50 endangered panthers in the Everglades are not purebred Florida panthers at all, but hybrids that may not be entitled to protection under the Endangered Species Act. Scientists compared the panthers' cells and found two distinct families. One was apparently descended from South American pumas set free in the 1950s.

The Interior Department has acquired 25,000 acres of land in southern Florida as a refuge for the state's threatened panthers, the department said Tuesday. The land east of Naples and adjacent to the Big Cypress National Preserve will be the site of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, to be managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. There are only an estimated 30 to 50 Florida panthers remaining.

Cal State Northridge never recovered from a 22-3 run by Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Monday night at the Mecca. The Panthers' knockout punch left Northridge trailing 36-18 at halftime en route to a 90-71 loss. In a 10-minute stretch before intermission, the Matadors missed 17 of 18 shots and turned the ball over seven times. Three of the missed shots were blocked, two were easy follow shots, two others were layups and one was a missed dunk.

When: 4:30 PST. Where: BankAtlantic Center. On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 1150. Records: Kings 26-18-10, Panthers 24-17-11. Record vs. Panthers: 1-0. Update: The Kings and Panthers have been shut out a combined 10 times this season, the Kings accounting for six of them. In the makes-complete-sense department: The Kings are 15-0-1 when they score at least three goals in a game. Left wing Kyle Clifford, who has two goals in his last five games (including the game-winner against Carolina)

Deep in this subtropical swamp, hidden away in a den of dense palmetto palms, TX 101 is nursing a rambunctious pair of kittens that represent the best evidence yet that the Florida panther can be saved from extinction.