and another thing:
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Florida Panther Facts
Protect the Florida Panther
or Lose Her Forever
What
is the Species?
Puma
concolor coryi. The Florida Panther is a subspecies of cougar that has
adapted to the subtropical environment of Florida.
How Many Panthers Are Left?
Only 80 to 100 panthers still remain in
Florida, making this one of
The most rare and endangered animals in the
world
Florida
Panthers are usually found in pinelands, hardwood hammocks, and mixed swamp
forests. Adult males may range over an area of 200 square miles, while females
range over a 70 to 80 square mile area. Florida panthers are very solitary
animals. An adult maintains a home range to live, hunt and, if female, raise
its young alone. A male panther’s home range is very large and averages 275
square miles and overlaps with the smaller home ranges of females. Panthers
maintain boundaries by marking with scents. They rarely fight over territory.
General:
Panthers
are most active at dusk and dawn, they can travel 15-20 miles a day, often
moving in a zig-zag pattern, though they tend to rest during the daytime,
travel & hunt during the cooler hours of the night. Panthers can swim and
will cross wide bodies of water. They have a keen sense of smell and a field of
vision of 130 degrees, they have excellent depth perception but lack the
panoramic view that deer have.
They
can run up to 35 mph but only for a few hundred yards, their preferred method
of hunting is to creep up as close to their prey as possible and launch a short
spring attack. Panthers do become used to man-made noises and frequently cross
roads. They are attracted to woodland fires, and may stay near burned sites for
days as deer and other prey are drawn to new vegetation. When humans approach
an area they will either be still, disappear, or attempt to circle behind.
Panthers can live up to between 12-15 years in the wild. A male can measure 7-8
feet from the nose to tail tip and weight 100-160 lbs. Females are about 6 feet
in length and weight between 60-100 lbs.
What
About Their Breeding Habits?
The
Life Cycle
What
Kind of Hunter is the Panther?
Efficient
is the word. Adult male panthers weigh up to 150 pounds and can measure almost
7 feet long from the nose to the tip of the tail. Females are smaller, rarely
weighing more than 100 pounds. Panthers are built to hunt live prey. Deer and
wild hogs
are
their preferred food, but, when these are not available, panthers will eat
raccoons, armadillos and even alligators. Interestingly, panthers eating a diet
of small animals are not as healthy as those with plenty of deer to hunt. While
they are good sprinters, panthers rarely chase prey for long distances.
Instead, prey is singled out, stalked and ambushed.
What are the Threats?
Humans:
We
are. This also means that we can directly affect the panther’s future. It’s sad
to say that Florida panthers are killed by cars and trucks, particularly on
State Road 29 and Alligator Alley (I-75), and – although it is against the law
– hunters also still shoot panthers occasionally.
Health
:
The
biggest threats to the remaining panthers, however, are their health and
continuing loss of habitat. Florida panthers have an unusually large number of
health problems. Most are related to poor habitat conditions and genetic defects.
Around
the Everglades, panthers have been contaminated with mercury (at least 1 has
died from mercury poisoning) by eating raccoons high in mercury, which passes
through the aquatic food chain. The mercury’s origin is being debated and is
uncertain.
What is being done?
Plans
to save the panthers focus on 3 areas of action. First, additional
habitat must be secured and enhanced. Second, programs are under way to
breed panthers in captivity for later release back in the wild. Third,
scientists are exploring ways to increase the genetic variability of panthers
through cross-breeding with closely related subspecies.
The
panther needs large wilderness areas for its survival. Federally listed as
endangered since 1967, the Florida panther is down to 80 to 100 individuals.
These few animals are threatened by further habitat loss, collisions with cars,
the ill effects of inbreeding, and high levels of mercury in their prey.
May of the remaining panthers
live in or near Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. The
National Park Service is cooperating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida Department
of Natural Resources, and other organizations to try to bring about recovery of
the Florida panther. Efforts are centered on research, captive breeding, and
public education. Radio-collaring of several panthers has shown what areas and
habitat types they use. Other studies have identified the principal prey —
white-tailed deer. Publicity has made the public more aware of the panther’s
plight and alerted people to watch out for them on the highway. But with the
numbers so low and suitable habitat in south Florida so restricted, captive
breeding and reestablishment in other areas will be crucial for turning the
population decline around.
Are There Any
Refuges?
The
National Wildlife Refuge System Act of 1966 includes measures to preserve
ecosystems for endangered species, perpetuate migratory bird species, preserve
natural diversity, and create public appreciation for wildlife protection.
The
refuge system is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an
agency of the Department of the Interior. The Florida Panther National Wildlife
Refuge is one of the 58 refuges established under the authority of the
Endangered Species Act. The refuge area has long been known as an important
Florida Panther habitat. Several female panthers have had litters and raised
kittens on the refuge in recent years.
The
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission monitors panther
activity using radio telemetry collars. They fly three times a week to aerially
locate each radio-collared panther. These techniques provide vital information
to scientists. The swamps and pinelands panthers occupy also provide us with
clean air and water, as well as thousands of species of birds, mammals,
reptiles and plants.
Refuge
Location
The
Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge lies 20 miles east of Naples,
Florida. Interstate 75 parallels the south boundary; State Road 29
parallels the east boundary.
Mission
of the Panther Refuge
To
conserve and manage lands and waters in concert with other agency efforts
within the Big Cypress Watershed, primarily for the Florida Panther, other
endangered and threatened species, natural diversity,
and cultural resources for the benefit of the American people.
Additional
Research:
In
1989, data collected from 29 radio-collared panthers indicated that the
population was losing genetic diversity at a rate of three to seven percent
yearly. Researchers believed that the gene pool would continue to erode even if
the population stabilized, leading to extinction within 40 years. Three years
later, with the health of the population continuing to decline, biologists made
a controversial decision. In an effort to increase genetic diversity, wildlife
managers introduced several female Texas cougars — the closest remaining cougar
population that had historically shared Florida panther range — into the
Florida panther population in 1995. Several hybrid litters have since been
produced, and the introduction seems to have corrected some of the problems
experts generally attribute to inbreeding. Experts are still debating the role
of the Texas cougars in panther recovery.
Despite
the success of this effort, panthers are still at great risk of extinction.
Conserving the panther will require aggressive protections for remaining wild
lands in south Florida as well as conservation efforts on private lands.
Another
major conservation challenge for the panther is reestablishing the species in
other portions of its historic range. Field studies have indicated an adequate
prey base and appropriate habitat in some areas of northern Florida. While
there is widespread popular support for panther reintroduction in Florida, some
people are still concerned about introducing the cat to new areas, fearing the
panther will bring with it restrictions on private property uses, potential
damage to livestock and pets, and a possible threat to human safety. Such concerns
often surround recovery efforts for large carnivores, but with proper
assurances to address depredation claims and any potential “problem” animals,
reintroduction projects could prove a positive step towards recovering the
Florida panther. Watch this Florida Panther video clip:
.
Florida Panther News
The
Florida Panther:
An Umbrella Species
An
umbrella species is a species that, through its protection, protects other
species that live within its habitat.
The
Florida Panther Refuge provides habitat for a total of 126 bird species, 46
species of reptiles and amphibians, 22 species of mammals and a large variety
of fish.
Closed
areas in the refuge protect habitat for 24 species of endangered, threatened or
plant & animal species of special concern status.
YOU
CAN HELP
Save
the Florida Panther from Extinction
•
Slow down when you’re driving
Over 10% of the dwindling Florida Panther population was killed in 2009 by
vehicle strikes. Watch out for all wildlife. Know what to do if you encounter a
panther in the wild; i.e. make yourself appear larger, avoid crouching or
bending over, do not run, give the panther an easy way to escape.
Historic
News About the Florida Panther
Small
Population Only One Danger Facing Panthers
By
WILL ROTHSCHILD Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Published:
Mar 26, 2006
OCHOPEE
– The future of the Florida panther is playing out here on Loop Road, a 26-mile
route carved through the middle of Big Cypress National Preserve.
Considered
the most endangered mammal on the planet when it numbered perhaps two dozen a
decade ago, the panther has rebounded to about 80.
The
number of people living in South Florida also has climbed dramatically in the
past 10 years. With more people moving into subdivisions chiseled into the
scrubby pinelands and hardwood hammocks that once buffered panthers from urban
life, a growing chorus of observers say Florida has reached its limit of cats.
Sustaining
the recovery, in fact, promises to be much trickier, hinging as much on social
and political considerations as scientific ones. How those questions are
answered could determine whether panthers hang on or whether South Florida
decides it no longer has the room or the will to protect them.
The
number of panthers killed on roadways this year has equaled the total from all
of 2005.
Online Videos by Veoh.com
Perhaps
a more telling indicator of the trouble facing the panther is the increasing
pressure to remove a particular cat from the wild this year.
Panthers
are known for their stealth, but this cat, known as No. 124, has been anything
but for more than two years. She has been seen dozens of times prowling along
Loop Road homesites in the Big Cypress hamlet of Ochopee.
Leaders
of the Miccosukee Indians who live there worry she will attack pets or
livestock or, though a panther attack on a person has never been reported, one
of the children who play along Loop Road and the fringes of wild Big Cypress.
As
the debate continues, about 124 and how to handle panther-human interaction –
not to mention whether the Florida panther’s DNA has become so corrupted by a
cross-breeding program that it might not even be the Florida panther anymore –
some scientists think the risk of extinction is as great today as ever.
Larry
Richardson, a federal biologist who has studied the cats for 20 years, is among
them.
“It’s
always dangerous when you make strides because people can get apathetic and
think everything is OK,” Richardson says. “But I’m more concerned today than I
was [10 years ago].
“I
see a crash coming.”
Shrinking Habitat And
Inbreeding
Florida
panthers once enjoyed their perch atop the food chain across a vast dominion.
They roamed the entire Southeast, from the Carolina mountains to the Louisiana
marshes. They were all over the Florida peninsula, from the Panhandle to the
Everglades.
Then
they were hunted and their habitat was paved over and fractured until the cats
were hemmed into the relatively tiny pocket of South Florida, a mere 5 percent
of their original range.
The
tight quarters meant major problems for the panther. By the mid-1990s, it had
become so inbred that its male offspring were being born without testicles.
The
panther is a subspecies of the cougars found in abundance across the Western
United States. Scientists transplanted eight Texas cougars into the panther
population in a last-ditch effort to solve the genetic problems and save the
animal. It worked: the panther’s numbers have roughly quadrupled since then.
Also,
after more than 20 years of capturing, collaring and tracking panthers, about
70 percent of what has been identified as the cat’s primary habitat zone has
been protected.
“We
have to tackle the remaining 30 percent to maintain continuity,” said Darrell
Land, the panther team leader with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission. “I’m cautiously optimistic. We certainly see more panthers today,
so I’m optimistic that preservation methods have worked.”
The Case Of No. 124
As
the fiercely territorial panther’s population grows and young males continue to
seek ranges outside protected public lands, the cats increasingly are running
headfirst into the region’s ravenous growth and development machine.
The
removal of 124 would be the second this year of a cat roaming near people in
Big Cypress. In February, panther 79, an 11-year-old male nicknamed Don Juan,
because he had fathered about 30 kittens, was removed from Big Cypress and
shipped to a nature center outside Jacksonville after repeatedly killing
livestock in the Pinecrest area.
Perhaps
no case better illustrates the complexity of panther management and the
uncertainty of the cat’s future than that of 124.
One
of an estimated 14 to 17 reproducing females left, 124 has birthed litters each
of the past two years, making her “one of the most significant panthers out
there,” according to Laura Hartt, a panther expert with the National Wildlife
Federation. It is rare for female panthers to give birth two years in a row.
Some
suspect Loop Road residents and people who work at the environmental education
center have been feeding deer in the area, which has attracted them and which,
in turn, has attracted 124.
At
a meeting in Naples this month, a team of scientists reaffirmed its position
that 124 has not displayed the type of behavior that mandates removal.
Meanwhile,
the Miccosukkee tribe continues to petition federal officials to take her out,
warning the panther could be shot if she displays threatening behavior.
Still A Panther?
Then
there’s the DNA question.
Biologists
say the animals maintain certain characteristics that are purely Florida
panther, such as facial structure.
But
the DNA question is clearly an issue that makes panther advocates
uncomfortable, raising the specter that the Florida panther is gone and the
cross-bred cats that remain in South Florida don’t qualify for protection.
Ultimately,
the underlying issue is the same: the Florida panther is in trouble. Where
people differ is on why and what should happen next.
Meanwhile,
back on Loop Road, alligators and wood storks hang out in roadside canals
framed by a tangle of bald cypress, orchid-adorned slash pine and palm trees.
On a mild mid-March afternoon, it can be hard to imagine there is something
wrong if you’re just passing through.
It
can be hard for the people who live here, too. Though Stacey Cypress, 18, lives
on Loop Road, she had not heard about her tribe’s fight to remove 124 until a
visitor told her about it last week.
Despite
the rampant fear and anxiety sweeping the area detailed in tribal letters to
wildlife officials, no one has told this new mother and caretaker of three younger
siblings that a renegade panther was about.
Her
8-week-old daughter on her lap, Cypress sat on her front porch and nodded
toward the lush wilderness.
“We’re
living in their habitat,” Cypress says. “They’re endangered, right?
“So
why move them out of here? What’s the point of that?”
Panthers
on the Prowl: Florida’s big cats rebound
Last
update: 22 May 2004
But
remain at mercy of politics, science and growth
By
DINAH VOYLES PULVER Environment Writer
This
is the first of a two-part series on the plight of Florida’s efforts to rescue
its panthers from the ill effects of encroaching humankind. Part two will
appear in Monday’s editions.
They’re
elusive and sightings are rare, but nearly three times as many Florida panthers
now roam the wilds of South Florida than 20 years ago.
Efforts
to bring the panther back from the brink of extinction produced dramatic
success. Breeding and genetic restoration projects were accomplished. Vast
tracts of habitat were saved. From an estimated 30 panthers, officials say the
population now numbers at least 87, not including kittens.
The
birth rate has outpaced the number of panthers that die in auto collisions, but
biologists say territorial fights are a bigger and just as lethal threat.
Savvy
and smart, panthers are efficient at prowling their territories for prey and
water. But that prowess can’t always help when they’re attacked by disease,
other panthers or even mosquitoes. It leaves them powerless in the face of the
sprawling growth that threatens their habitat and competes for vacant land. The
Florida panther is still endangered.
And,
during the past year, simmering squabbles over panther protection have bubbled
into very public debate among scientists, the state and federal agencies they
work for, environmental groups and developers.
The
crux of the dispute is over panther habitat — chiefly, how the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service evaluates panther habitat and recommends what developers
should do to make up for damage.
The
wildlife service oversees panther protection and recovery in Florida. The
service works with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which
also oversees panther protection and monitors the panther population. Both
agencies work on restoration projects and conduct and support scientific
research.
The
federal agency’s panther plans put priority on preserving forested land, saying
it’s the cat’s favored habitat. Others say different types of habitat, such as
grassland and farmland, are just as important and that faulty science has
prevented the federal agency from adopting that principle in permitting.
A
federal complaint filed May 3 is the latest in a series of disputes and
allegations.
Andrew
Eller, a biologist with the federal wildlife service for 17 years, alleges in
the complaint that his employer knowingly uses flawed science, which creates
poor permitting decisions that allow crucial panther habitat to be destroyed.
A
scientific panel, commissioned by the wildlife service, drew similar
conclusions in December after reviewing research used by the state and federal
agencies to set policy. The panel issued a report, scathing in some sections,
saying the service should immediately stop using its modeling method that puts
priority on forested habitat.
The
panel of four experts from outside Florida also recommended the appointment of
an independent scientific steering committee and a re-analysis of existing
data. It chided the agencies for allowing panther research to lag.
The
wildlife service also is embroiled in at least two lawsuits raising similar
concerns brought against it by the National Wildlife Federation and the Florida
Panther Society.
PANTHER
PROGRESS
Officials
at the state and federal level have been taken aback by the fervor of their
critics.
“We
are the catalyst that has helped to understand how to protect the panther and
its habitat,” said Jay Slack, field supervisor for the federal wildlife service
in Vero Beach. “We are really serious about protecting the Florida panther.
It’s the right thing to do and we are bringing all of our knowledge and
resources to bear on doing just that.”
Both
the state and federal agencies point to the huge volume of information
collected, hundreds of thousands of protected acres and wildlife underpasses
built under South Florida highways.
“If
you look at where cats are today compared to where they were 20 years ago, it’s
been an incredible effort with significant results to further the conservation
of the species,” said Thomas Eason, bureau chief of the state wildlife
commission’s bureau of wildlife diversity and conservation.
“It’s
been at great effort and cost to a lot of people,” Eason said, including all
the Floridians who bought the 1.4 million panther license plates sold since
1993. “We’ve thrown a lot of money and resources at it and I think it’s paid
off for the panther.”
The
commission has monitored 132 panthers during the past 23 years, officials said.
Darrell
Land, panther coordinator for the wildlife commission, has worked in the
panther program for 20 years.
“I
feel pretty good about it but we shouldn’t dust off our hands and act like the
job is done,” he said. “We’ve still got a long way to go before having a
population we don’t have to manage.”
The
cats “will always be in danger but we’re at a point where we can keep panthers
here into the foreseeable future,” Land said.
The
Florida panther, a genetically distinct part of the puma family, was placed on
the federal Endangered Species List in 1967 because of its dramatically
declining numbers. Cats that once roamed the entire Eastern seaboard were
confined to a shrinking population in the lower half of Florida.
In
1979, the state wildlife commission began capturing panthers and putting radio
collars on them to track their movements. They learned where the panthers were,
where they traveled and how they interacted with each other and their
environment.
When
the panthers still ranged throughout the Southeast, experts say they
periodically crossbred with Texas pumas. When that ended, the genetic variation
that sustains a healthy population gradually gave way to genetic problems that
come with inbreeding.
In
1995, the state and federal governments began a genetic restoration project.
Eight Texas females were released in South Florida and produced 17 kittens. The
last of those females were removed last fall and retired to a private wildlife
conservation center.
Genetic
intervention will have to continue as long as there are fewer than 100
panthers, because the cats won’t be able to find mates they’re not related to,
Land said. But the next phase won’t start until more studies are completed on
the long-term results of the last effort.
The
panthers, meanwhile, have problems all on their own, even without human
impacts.
NATURE
TAKES ITS TOLL
In
2002, 30 kittens were born from radio-collared females.
“That
was really an amazing year,” said Layne Hamilton, manager of the Florida
Panther National Wildlife Refuge. But, fewer than half that year’s kittens
survived.
“It’s
a hard life. Sometimes the mothers aren’t real experienced at raising kittens,”
Hamilton said. “There are a lot of things coming at the population that are
challenging us in trying to manage it and allow it to grow.”
Biologists
think two of the 2002 kittens may have died from anemia from mosquito bites.
Hamilton said one biologist working that summer said the mosquitoes were so
thick he could hardly breathe.
Predators,
road kills and feline leukemia are among the other dangers, but biologists say
the biggest cause of death is territorial aggression. Hamilton said most male
panthers don’t live past 18 months because they’re killed by other males,
Hamilton said.
Last
August biologists released two panther siblings, a male and a female, orphaned
about a year earlier when an uncollared male killed their mother. Three months
later, the young male was killed, apparently by the male that killed his
mother. Meanwhile, the female may be pregnant by that same male.
“It’s
kind of a soap opera out there,” Hamilton said. “It’s survival of the fittest.”
DEVELOPME
NT VS. PANTHERS
The
lack of agreement among experts about precisely what makes up ideal habitat
creates confusion and conflict among developers, their consultants,
environmental groups and the agencies involved in panther protection.
Generally,
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for permitting development
projects. If the Corps decides the project may impact an endangered species,
the Fish and Wildlife Service is called in.
The
service, for example, consults on projects that may affect panthers within a
designated priority area in Southwest Florida that includes Big Cypress Swamp,
the Everglades and several preservation areas.
The
permitting guidelines say the agencies are to use the best available science to
evaluate direct and indirect impacts and minimize impacts where possible.
Environmental
groups argue that 13,000 acres of habitat have been destroyed by development in
South Florida. But the wildlife service says not all of the permitted
development destroys habitat. The habitat may be disturbed and then later used
again by panthers.
They
say of 11,263 acres of development permitted since January 2002, 6,496 acres
have been permanently preserved or improved by developers through such projects
as removing exotic species and restoring native landscapes.
Since
2000, the wildlife service has been working on new guidelines to “ensure the
survival and recovery of the panther.” A new panther habitat conservation plan
and a landscape conservation plan to help guide property owners, agencies and
permitters are expected to be released later this year, said Bert Byers,
spokesman for the wildlife service’s Vero Beach regional office. The habitat
plan also will include a new priority area map that will increase the area
within which permit applications require federal review.
The
wildlife service also is working on a revised recovery plan. The plans,
required for all endangered species, spell out how the service hopes to bring
the animals back to the point they can be removed from the endangered list.
The
current recovery panther plan, developed in conjunction with the state and
other interested parties, was last revised in 1995. Initially the service said
the new plan would be ready this fall, but now reports it probably won’t be
ready until 2005.
It
frustrates environmental groups that the federal government moves so slowly,
said Karen Hill, vice president of the Florida Panther Society.
“They
keep saying they’re going to do something but we have yet to see anything,”
Hill said. “The new conservation strategy for panther habitat has been dragging
for years.”
The
environmental groups’ lawsuit mentions that delay, stating the federal
government has failed to produce “a meaningful plan” to guide development and
uses bad science to issue permits.
“Developers
are rapidly mining, bulldozing, clearing and paving the natural landscapes
needed for the panther to survive,” the suit states.
In
one suit, the environmental group wants to stop the federal permit for a
3,212-acre limerock-mining pit in Fort Myers. The groups say the buffers and
other trade-offs proposed for the Florida Rock mine will not make up for the
isolation of panther territories and the damage to more than 5,000 acres.
“If
this rate of habitat loss keeps up over the next five to 10 years, the panthers
would be facing extinction,” said the panther society’s Hill.
Both
lawsuits were filed in the District Court in Washington, D.C.
In
the other suit, the groups allege the service has failed to protect the panther
by ignoring the concerns of its own biologists and other scientists and by
putting too much emphasis on protecting forested lands and not enough on other
kinds of habitat that panthers also use.
John
Kostyack, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, said the wildlife
groups don’t disagree with “every aspect of federal policy.”
“We
praise them for the acquisitions and the wildlife crossing,” Kostyack said.
“And the restoration was a big success.”
However,
Kostyack said the results of the recent reviews mean “we’re going to have to
change the way they develop in South Florida.”
The
success of the genetic restoration program could serve as a model for a similar
effort to preserve habitat, said Hill.
“The
panthers were facing genetic crisis and all the agencies and conservation
groups came together and did what needed to be done to save the panthers,” she
said. “That’s what needs to happen again.”
