Endangered Florida panther threatened by development project, experts say

Almost half of proposed area of construction falls within hunting and roaming zone that is essential to animal’s survival

Richard Luscombe in Miami

Wed 2 Jan 2019 07.00 GMTLast modified on Wed 2 Jan 2019 14.41 GMT

The extinction of the endangered Florida panther could be hastened by a large development proposed for the state, environmental groups are warning, as a major project is expected to win approval from the Trump administration as early as April.

Up to 45,000 acres of rural Collier county in south-west Florida are earmarked for housing and commercial development under the plan drawn up by a coalition of 11 major Florida landowners, as well as new sand and gravel mines.

Several new cities would be created by the project, adding hundreds of thousands of new residents and hundreds of miles of new roadways.

But almost half of the proposed area of construction falls within what US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) scientists recognise as “primary zone” for dwindling numbers of the Florida panther, a subspecies of puma of which barely 200 adults are believed to survive.

The FWS says preservation of the entirety of the big cats’ hunting and roaming zone, which incorporates about 20,000 acres of the Collier development, is “essential for the survival of the Florida panther in the wild”.

“This area was never intended for this amount of development,” said Amber Crooks, environmental policy manager of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

“These parts of Collier county contain a lot of important habitat for the Florida panther and also so many other rare species and has important public lands on each corner. The best available science tells us the panther needs all its available habitat to survive and ultimately recover,” she said.

Continued 

Two endangered Florida panther cubs die after being hit by cars

By Letitia Stein

TAMPA Fla. (Reuters) - Two rare Florida panther cubs were struck and killed by cars during the weekend, authorities said on Monday, bringing the total road deaths for the endangered species to 16 this year.

The 4-month-old panther cubs appeared to have been hit in separate incidents while crossing a rural road in Collier County in the southwestern part of the state, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

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Panthers prey on ranchers' calves, but amount varies

Date:

July 31, 2014

Source:

University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

Summary:

Study looked at panther behavior at two Florida cattle ranches, confirmed calf predation as a problem. The Florida panther nearly died out, with an estimated population thinning to just 20 to 25 panthers by 1995, with conservation efforts helping the cat's numbers grow to an estimated 100 to 160 by 2012. But the panthers' comeback has not always been helpful to cattle ranchers.

Continued

Cash incentive mulled to give endangered Florida panther room to prowl

By Letitia Stein

TAMPA Fla. (Reuters) - The endangered Florida panther, running out of room to prowl as its numbers rebound, may find its best chance at survival is a program to pay distrustful ranchers to protect what remains of its habitat.

The payment plan proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has never been tried before on a large scale with a wide-ranging predator, officials say.

Landowners could receive $22 per acre (0.4 hectare) to maintain the cattle pastures and wooded scrub increasingly critical as panther terrain.

Continued

Endangered Florida Panther Found Shot Dead in Nature Reserve

An endangered Florida panther was found shot dead over the weekend, in the Big Cypress National Preserve, a (supposedly) protected area for wildlife. The death is significant as there are only 100 to 160 Florida panthers remaining, scientists estimate.

The National Park Service is asking anybody with information to come forward. It's a crime to kill a panther, with a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Continued

Florida Panther sightings survey

Panther sightings reported throughout Florida

August 2013. The public has reported hundreds of sightings of Florida panthers to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). As of August 2013, the public had submitted 790 sightings.

Mistaken identity

Only 12 percent of the reports included a photograph and could be evaluated by Commission biologists. Of those with photos, the majority were confirmed as panthers. Other animals identified by FWC biologists were bobcats, foxes, coyotes, dogs, house cats and even a monkey. Most often the reported animal or tracks belonged to a bobcat, when it was not a panther. The verified panther reports were largely confined to southwest Florida, the well-documented breeding range for panthers in the state. There also were several verified sightings in south central Florida.

"The public's willingness to share what they have seen or collected on game cameras is incredibly helpful and shows us where panthers presumably are roaming in Florida," said Darrell Land, who heads the FWC's panther team. "We thank everyone using the Report Florida Panther Sightings website and encourage others to participate in this citizen-science venture."

"As the population of this endangered species grows, the FWC expects more Florida panthers to be seen in areas of the state where they have not lived for decades," Land said. "To properly plan and manage for the expansion of the panther's range in Florida, information about where the panthers are is vital."

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Female Florida panther, raised in captivity, gives birth in the wild

Released female panther gives birth

June 2013. Biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have discovered that a female Florida panther that was rescued as an orphaned kitten and raised in captivity has given birth just a few months after her release back into the wild. Biologists found an approximately 1-month-old female kitten in the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park in southwest Florida, near where they released the young adult panther on Jan. 31.

"We were very excited to find this panther's kitten," said Dave Onorato, FWC panther biologist. "The fact that this panther has given birth is positive news for the recovery of this endangered species and a testament to the hard work of all involved in its rescue and rehabilitation."

Early conception

Biologists estimate the female panther became pregnant about three weeks after her release, when she was only 21 months old. That age is somewhat younger than the typical age of first conception for female panthers the FWC has documented. While biologists are encouraged the female became a contributor to the population so quickly, it was not completely unexpected, given that her home range is within prime panther habitat.

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Man pleads guilty to shooting a Florida panther

Panther shot with a bow and arrow

May 2012. 45 year old Todd Alan Benfield pled guilty to shooting and killing a Florida Panther, in violation of the US Endangered Species Act. Benfield faces a maximum penalty of one year in federal prison, a fine of up to $100,000, and forfeiture of weapons and other equipment used to kill the animal. 

Benfield was bow hunting in Collier County, using a tree stand to hunt for deer. From his tree stand, Benfield knowingly shot and killed a Florida Panther. The following day, Benfield and an associate moved the panther into the Woodland Grade area, in an attempt to conceal the animal. Benfield then removed his tree stand from the area in an effort to conceal the fact that he had killed the panther. A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer located the dead panther in a section of thick vegetation, in the Woodland Grade area. The officer determined that the dead panther had been dragged approximately 50 yards. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory conducted a genetics analysis of a tissue sample taken from the carcass and determined that it was a Florida Panther.

The Florida panther is the last subspecies of Puma still surviving in the eastern United States. Historically occurring throughout the south-eastern United States, the estimated 100 to 160 panthers are found in south Florida, in less than five percent of their historic range.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/panther-bow.html#cr

3 Florida panthers die in the first 10 days of 2012

24 deaths, 32 births documented in 2011

January 2011. Florida panthers are off to a rough start in 2012, with three deaths documented by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Already, in just the first week of 2012, there were two documented deaths of panthers hit by vehicles on highways in Collier County, where the greatest concentration of panthers in the state is found. The third fatality was caused by a fight with another panther.

2011 births and deaths
Last year, 24 Florida panther deaths were recorded, but FWC biologists also observed 11 radio-collared females giving birth to 32 panther kittens. Overall, the known number of newborn panthers in 2011 appears to have offset the known number of panther deaths. Among the 24 documented panther deaths in 2011, nine deaths, or more than a third, were due to collisions with vehicles.

100-160 panthers alive
Today, an estimated 100 to 160 adults of this federally endangered species live in Florida. Panthers almost disappeared from the wild in this state when their numbers fell to fewer than 30 in the 1970s. Since then, their population has been increasing.

Vehicle collisions top cause of mortality
Collisions with vehicles continues to be the greatest source of human-caused mortality to this long-tailed cat that can weigh up to 160 pounds and grow to 6 feet or longer.

"Florida panther deaths are most often the result of one of two things: collisions with vehicles or aggression from other panthers," said Kipp Frohlich, head of the Imperiled Species Management Section at the FWC. "We can't control panthers fighting when they are defending their territory; that is a part of nature. But we can do something about human-caused panther mortalities."

"People who slow down and drive carefully in rural areas, especially where panther crossings are identified, can make a difference in conservation of this endangered species. It is especially important to slow down and keep a careful lookout at dawn or dusk, when panthers are most likely to be on the move," Frohlich said.

The FWC continues to work with many partners to conserve and increase habitat available to panthers on both public and private lands. This is a critical step to ensuring the survival of panthers, the official state animal of Florida.

Report sightings
People are encouraged to report sightings of an injured or dead panther by calling the FWC's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) or #FWC or *FWC on a cell phone. Another option is texting Tip@MyFWC.com (standard usage fees may apply).

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/florida-panther2012.html

Georgia hunter fined for shooting endangered Florida panther (via Chad Arment)

A Georgia man was fined $2,000 and sentenced to two years probation today for the 2008 shooting of what turned out to be an endangered Florida panther that had wandered into Georgia.

David Adams, 60, formerly of Newnan, killed the big cat Nov. 16, 2008, with a muzzleloading rifle while hunting from a tree stand on public Corps of Engineers land near West Point Lake in Troup County.

The healthy, 140-pound cat was first thought to be an escaped pet. Eight months later, however, tests performed by the National Cancer Institute's Laboratory of Genomic Diversity in Maryland confirmed it was a Florida panther - and a federally protected endangered species.

The sentencing, held in U.S. District Court in north Georgia, includes a stipulation that Adams may not hunt or obtain a hunting license anywhere in the U.S. during his probation.

Authorities say Adams knew he was shooting at a cougar, a species for which there is no open season in Georgia.

The Florida panther has been listed as an endangered species since March 11, 1967, giving it protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Maximum penalties for violating the act include prison terms and fines up to $100,000.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission have worked for years to bring the Florida panther back from near extinction. The population has been growing since its low point of less than 30 panthers in the wild in the late 1980s, to more than 100 to 160 adults today.

The panther's appearance in Georgia was unusual. The place where it was shot and killed is almost 600 miles from its known habitat. The cat was so healthy biologists speculated it was someone's pet.

Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division gets dozens of reported panther sightings each year, but rarely has evidence to back them up. Authorities say anyone seeing a panther should not shoot it, but can try to get photos or document its presence through physical evidence, such as tracks, droppings or kills.

One of Georgia's best-known panther visits occurred in 1995, when 10 western cats were fitted with tracking collars and released in northern Florida as part of an experiment to determine if that region could be repopulated.

One of the male cats ended up in Burke County, Ga., before traveling along Brier Creek into McDuffie County. Eventually, it made its way to the Clarks Hill Wildlife Management Area near Thurmond Lake, where biologists recaptured it in February of that year and returned it to Florida.

During its travels through Georgia, the wandering panther never generated a single reported sighting.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2011-08-24/georgia-hunter-fined-shooting-endangered-florida-panther

Rob Pavey
Staff Writer
Wednesday, Aug 24, 2011

Three Florida panthers were found killed by cars within three days recently: (from Chad Arment)

http://swflorida.blogspot.com/2010/05/three-florida-panthers-killed-in-3-days.html

THE DEMISE OF THE PANTHER (via Paul Cropper)

TIMES EDITORIALS
NATIONAL
THE DEMISE OF THE PANTHER
26 April 2010
St. Petersburg Times
Copyright 2010 St. Petersburg Times. All Rights Reserved.

The federal government's shameful record of protecting the Florida panther is leading the state's official animal straight to its extinction. The federal wildlife agency, succumbing to pressure from development interests, has opened vast tracts of panther habitat to construction, manipulated scientific data and stalled a management plan for saving the species. The Obama administration needs to rethink this approach before the big, graceful cat is lost for good.

The sad story of the panther's demise has the same elements of so many Florida development stories, as St. Petersburg Times staff writer Craig Pittman chronicled in a series of reports last week. Money and politics have contributed over more than a decade to deny the panther the protection it deserves under the Endangered Species Act. For decades, biologists have known that maintaining enough land for these wide-ranging predators was key to saving the species. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not blocked a single development that altered panther habitat. Former employees say every time they tried, "we were told that politically it would be a disaster," one agency retiree told the Times. Another employee said his bosses told him to inflate the number of breeding panthers to quash any fears about extinction.

The head of the South Florida office of the wildlife service said saving "the panther is arguably the greatest species conservation challenge in the country." His agency's actions are a large reason why. Even as the state brought in Texas cougars in 1995 to breed with the Florida panther and boost the population, the wildlife service since then has approved 113 development projects that would wipe out more than 42,000 acres of habitat if built. The construction of new houses, roads and new airport facilities in southwest Florida not only squeezed the panthers further and fragmented their habitat, it also made it more likely the cats would be killed by cars.

The wildlife service also considered development projects in isolation, when the real danger is the cumulative impact that building projects have on panther habitat. Former employees said agency higher-ups frustrated their efforts to look at development in comprehensive terms. The agency also failed to adhere to its policy of "no net loss" on panther habitat, which itself was a route for watering down challenges to development projects. Pittman found that since 1995, the federal government has required that 30,000 acres of panther habitat be preserved - 12,000 acres less than what it has allowed to be destroyed.

The Obama administration should change course by settling a lawsuit filed by environmental groups that calls on the federal government to establish critical habitat for the panther. A group of experts convened in 1999 by the wildlife service charted a course for saving and restoring land in South Florida - but that effort was shelved by agency bosses who turned instead to a land-swap proposal backed by the very developers who would build on the panther habitat. The state can have an honest debate about the future of the panther and the trade-offs the public and private sectors should shoulder to save the species. And there is a middle ground between barring development in some habitats and barring none at all. At the very least, the public should have confidence that the government is not cooking the science or the numbers.