Welcome to Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge where you can find many things to do outdoors! Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is one of nine refuges that make up the Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge Complex and it serves as the Headquarters for the Complex. If you enjoy hunting and angling, Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is perfect for you. Checkout Stricklin's and Cotton's access for some amazing sites to find a variety of game species, but don't stop there! With over 40,000 acres of land, there are plenty of areas for you to find your next big buck, turkey, squirrel, and many other game species, but be sure to check our Current Public Use Regulations first. Hunting and angling not something you are interested in? No problem! We offer plenty of well-maintained roads to capture that perfect picture of nature and wildlife or observe birds like the Roseate Spoonbill, Prothonotary Warbler, and plenty of various wading and shore birds. We hope you enjoy your visit here!

Visit Us

National Wildlife Refuges offer us all a chance to unplug from the stresses of daily life and reconnect with our natural surroundings. Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge will help you do just that! Covering over 40,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forests, cypress-tupelo sloughs, and meandering bayous, Panther Swamp NWR is one of the largest Refuges in the state of Mississippi. Our 40,000+ acres of land will help bring serenity through a variety of activities like hunting, fishing, photography, and many more fun activities!

Location and Contact Information

      About Us

      Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge's expansive bottomland hardwood forests, cypress-tupelo sloughs, and meandering bayous represent some of the best remaining examples of the historically predominant habitat types that once characterized the entire Mississippi floodplain. 

      What We Do

      Wildlife conservation is at the heart of the National Wildlife Refuge System. It drives everything on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands and waters managed within the Refuge System, from the purposes for which a national wildlife Refuge is established to the recreational activities offered to the resource management tools used. Using conservation best practices, the Refuge System manages Service lands and waters to help ensure the survival of native wildlife species. 

      Management activities on Panther Swamp NWR include moist soil management, water management, forest management, law enforcement, public hunting and fishing, invasive species invasive species
      An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.

      Learn more about invasive species
      control, research, inventory and monitoring, education and interpretation.

      Our Species

      Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is home to a wide variety of species. Some animals that you may see while visiting are as follows: American Alligators, White-tailed Deer, Wood Ducks, Prothonotary Warblers, Mallards, plus many more wading birds, shore birds, mammals, reptiles, etc. These are just some of the key species found around Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge that help our Refuge ecosystem thrive. Research has even been done here in the Mississippi Delta on the rising population of the Louisiana black bear

      When visiting the Refuge, be sure to just observe the animals, never touching or harassing them. 

      Our Library

      Check out our digital library to see management plans, brochures, and other refuge documents.

      TR Complex Bird List

      A comprehensive checklist of birds one could find while visiting any Refuge within the Complex. 

      Projects and Research

      Theodore Roosevelt NWR Complex has collaborated with Mississippi State University and University of Southern Mississippi to conduct multiple studies as part of the graduate programs through Research and Monitoring Special Use Permits. Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is committed to help further these research projects and initiatives and is happy to collaborate with new projects as they come!