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.
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