A Florida panther lies dead by the side of a highway. Photo courtesy of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
The endangered Florida panther population has taken a big hit. In 2014, 30 of these elusive felines, listed as an endangered species for more than 40 years, have died, the majority of which met their fates on highways in three southwest Florida counties: Collier, Lee and Hendry.
Four of the deaths occurred near the Big Cypress National Preserve, and more than a third of the deaths were females of kitten-bearing age. The 30 dead cats represents a 50 percent increase from 2013, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and exceeds the previous record of 27 deaths counted in 2012.
While the panther once roamed much of the eastern United States, it is now confined to just a small area in southwest Florida, 5 percent of its original range. This year's number of fatalities may represent up to a quarter of the entire panther population, though exact counts are difficult to obtain because the use of radio tracking has declined. Only seven of the dead panthers this past year were wearing radio collars.
According to PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, "The management of the Florida panther is biology by body count.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recorded 32 kittens born this year, but their survival rate is low. The population is in decline and long-term recovery seems bleak, according to PEER. The reduction in genetic diversity has also affected these cats.
PEER points to Florida's new, sprawling development in panther country, and an increase in off-road vehicle traffic, specifically in the Big Cypress National Preserve Addition Lands, as contributors to the high fatality count. And, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not designated critical habitat for the animal. From 1984 to 2009, the agency approved 127 developments that could affect habitat, according to PEER.
"In south Florida, the panther literally is a speed bump to sprawling development,” Ruch said. “Many believe we have already reached the tipping point where a viable population of Florida panther can no longer exist in the wild and the future of this alpha-predator is as a zoo species.”
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Comments
When there are twice as many (2X) of something/panthers as should be in a place it is no wonder they are regularly being creamed by cars. Everyone can thank the obsessive mismanagement of them for high numbers (consequences be damned) by the State and Federal government oh and let's not forget the almighty Endangered Species Act) for many of the current problems. Here's some facts Mr Cone missed which come from a Federal document by USFWS on this subject:
http://www.fws.gov/verobeach/MammalsPDFs/R4FWSPantherEAFinal.pdf?spcode=A008
Pg 19 under 4.1.1 go down and read from line 11 to 14 which explains somebody (Kautz et al (2006) knew panthers were at or very near carrying capacity back then. Here's the excerpt below :
Kautz et al.
(2006) estimated that existing panther habitat could support 79-94 panthers. Based on the
2002-2003 field count by McBride (2003) of 87 panthers, the existing habitat south of the
Caloosahatchee River may be at carrying capacity.
In the above statement the Caloosahatchee runs West of Lake Okeechobee to the coast and if one drew a line across the State's West to East coast thru Lake Okeechobee all the land below the line is only 6 million acres but the current panther population needs 12,000,000 which is essentially impossible today but people still try to beat mother nature with good intentions only cauusing more harm to the species and the people who pay for it all.
Mr Cone has also totally misrepresented ORV use in the Big Cypress Addition Land. Guess what folks - there are no ORVs operating in the Addition as of today (Jan 1, 2015) except government research ORVs once in a while. An ORV has never injured a panther either so where is Mr Cone getting his misinformation from Santa Claus. I believe I am qualified to mention these facts due to having roamed the Big C for over 5 decades.
Whether people know it or not the previous delisting criteria for the panthers was 3 populations comprised of 50 (proof at this link http://www.panthersociety.org/karen.html of them with one of the 3 populations being in another Southeastern state. Somehow the reasonable 50 number got modified to 3 populations of 240 and this massive problem was born.
We are told by the educated ones that more panther crossings are needed at $4,000,000 dollars a piece. All that would do is create more jobs for the educated ones that caused the mess in the first place since it would assist in there being more of these animals that are basically obsolete and inappropriate for the 21st century in Florida or hardly anywhere else with residential communities nearby. If nothing else the educated ones along with the environmental extremists understand job security and fund raising very well from the looks of it.
Panther management in Florida is probably one of the worst wildlife stories ever in the whole wide world due to the fact that many other wildlife species (mammals) are being/have been extripated as this species eats it way through South Florida's entire wildlife population. Think about it - this specie's population is similar to allowing 200 deer/turkey etc. poachers work freely 7-24-365 - now how smart is that. One difference between panthers and human poachers is that a panther eats fawns along with does and bucks plus anything else with fur, scales or feathers. One can't just blame panthers though since pythons, gators, coyotes etc. take their share also and are pretty much supported to do so by misguided State/Federal hunting bans on many predatorspecies such as these. Extreme Green folks and those they've tricked into agreeing with them over the years with their endless propaganda stream may not like hunting but it is necessary in this 21st century whether they acknowledge the fact or not.
Hopefully all had a good New Year - The End.
Hmmm... too bad we don't set max population numbers for people like we do other species.
Agreed, dahkota. Perhaps it's "inappropriate" to expand development in ways that threaten one of the world's most unique places.
Unique is the wrong reference to this cat, cougar, catamount, puma or whatever name they pin on it - they are all essentially the same. Go ahead get technical to keep the scam alive. Promoters of this scam are very lucky most Americans are blissfully ignorant and asleep on this.
Do I detect some sort of dollar driven agenda?
Frank-- you seem to have a problem with "educated" people??
Okay, your stats for 2014 are that 70% of panthers died from collisions with vehicles and some of the other 30% died from other panthers which was the second most likely cause of death. But, in 1997 more panthers were killed by other panthers when they wore radio collars than were killed by cars. So we must assume that more panthers are killed by other panthers.
Well, your stats are incorrect. The 35% of panthers with radio collars killed was not limited to 1997; it is 1979 through 1997 inclusive - a period of about 20 years. And, during a majority of those 20 years (14), Alligator Alley was not as large or as well travelled as it is today. This information has the effect of negating the statistics and additional information you posted, as it compares apples to oranges. Additionally, if you look at the "All Panthers" stat, an uncollared panther was twice as likely to die due to vehicle collision than due to other panthers.
In just the last 15 years, the traffic on Alligator Alley has tripled. That would be 1999-2014, or right outside of your statistics. Statistically, with more panthers and more cars, it is more likely that vehicle collisions are rising.
Also, I would argue that restoring the Everglades to its natural condition, i.e. more water, less land, has a greater impact on the deer population than the panthers do. (Not to mention the incursion of housing developments and the like into their territories.) While panthers do kill deer and other prey, loss of food and habitat have a much bigger impact on populations. I would bet, over the last 15 years, hunters, the human kind, have killed more deer than panthers have.
http://www.floridapanthernet.org/index.php/pulse/#.VKiyR3tBEhQ
We did not say that 70% of panthers died from collisions. Simply, that the only reasonable and accurate comparison of panther deaths in relation to the panther population can be extraoplated from collared cats. That is the only population of cats that can be accurately quantified, and is also the reason why there is such a difference in numbers between the two pie charts. Youh ave been duped, as have most of the public by the misinformation that is being disseminated to maintain a bogus program.
We remiind you that the statistics we are discussing were compiled and published by the government "experts". While the chart says 1979 - 1997, and that is in fact an almost 20 year window, panthers were not fitted and monitored with tracking collars until the mid 1990's, before, during and after the introduction of female cougars from West Texas. So while the government would like you to believe that the statistics of collared cats is 20 years of data, IT IS NOT. The collared panther data only reflects a small window of maybe 2 to 4 years. Again, that is the only somewhat accurate data, as nobody ever finds ALL the dead or live panthers. The 20 year window they refer to is the graph for "all panthers" which is misleading. Nobody, not even the "experts", know exactly how many panthers make up "all panthers". To date they still do not know with any certainty exactly how many there are. What they do know, because they actually counted them is that there are no less than 133 panthers in the 78% of public land that encompasses the Panther Primary Zone. They have absolutley no idea how many exist on the most desireable, properly managed 22% of private lands in the "zone". The "experts" have shown models that show that there may be as many as 272 in that same zone.
The issue at hand is not who kills how many deer, or if man kills more deer than panthers. The issue is that the land can only sustain 94 panthers, PERIOD. There is no way around that. If the land remained unchanged from here on out, 94 is the maximum amount of cats that can live here. That was determined by calculating how much land is available to sustain an animal that ranges 200 square miles, and the amount of food available to them, without depleting those species and eradicating them from that land. You should also be aware that the same government agency responsible for the protection of Florida Panthers, authorized and permitted the development of 50,000 acres of land within the Primary Panther Zone, in the same 15 year period you refer to, Ave Maria being the biggest and most damning of them all.
Certainly, man has changed the entire ecosystem by altering water flow, changing land contours and through development. Unfortunately those things can not be fully reversed, the ecosystem will never function the way it was intended to. It is for that reason that man now bears the responsibility of ensuring that what is left of the land functions at optimum potential. That means man is responsible to ensure an even balance between the needs of man and the needs of the wildlife.
If and when the intentions of restoring the everglades to historic levels are realized, the problems will only be further exacerbated. You see Panthers are currently restricted to the 3.5 million acres that comprise the Everglades Ecosystem. All of the wildlife has learned to acclamate to those conditions over the last 150 years. The land they used to use before drainage has been developed, it is no longer an option for them. When the land they live on now is restored, and high water levels are maintained for 8 months out of the year, all of that wildlife will suffer. The same animals we are working so hard to save, will die as a result of flooding the only land left for them to inhabit. To understand that you must realize, that most of the 3.5 million acres is BCNP and ENP, and if you remove the ability of those animals to use that land, due to flooding, they have no other option and will have nowhere to go.
Furthermore, your bet of deer loss being greater by man than panther is probably, very wrong. Panther experts estimate there are between 75-100 female panthers in the panther zone. A female panther with young requires one deer sized prey, daily, in order to sustain her young. To be conservative, lets say there are 50 females, eating 200 deer a year. Over the course of one year that is 10,000 deer sized prey just on 3.5 million acres, no animal population can sustain those losses. That is just panther depredation, that is not including bobcats, coyotes, bears, alligators and pythons. Compare that to the maybe, and a big maybe, but certainly verifiable, 500 deer(90% bucks) that all hunters harvest in the same 3.5 million acres over the course of that same year, that is the equivalent of two female panthers. That is harldy comparable over the 15 years you speak of, and we didnt even include the predation by the male cougars in that time span.
Ultimately we are attempting to sift through and bring to light the constant misinformation, mismanagement and misconceptions that people have of this government created boondoggle. The masses never bother to read into the data and only accept, at face value, the propaganda that they are being fed to perpetuate a very destructive program. A program that is consuming funding and resources that could be applied in a more appropriate manner to achieve the same goals.
So Frank-- whats your answer to this-- just let them disappear from Florida since they live out West??
No, but control the population well below the natural carrying capacity of the public land available for them so that they are not forced to forage where they conflict with people that own private property.
Believe it or not many species of mammals (racoons, armadillos, rabbits otters etc.) that were common many years ago are rare to very rarely seen these days in core panther habitat (e.g. Big Cypress, Picayune, Panther refuge, Fakahatchee Strand) definetley partly because of panthers but they are only one of many unchecked predator populations adding to the negative impacts of havfing too much of a good thing.
I am only honestly reporting what myself and many others who have explored Fla's. swamps are experiencing for the last 10 years when out in the wilds down here.
I'm confused what the scam is, who specifically [other than unnamed "educated ones"] created or profit by said scam, and stuff like that. Drop the black helicopter conspiracy theory wording and make your case.
The ESA facilitated the initial restoration effort for the cat. The at some point I bought and read a book titled "Swamp Screamer" authored by Charles Fergus to try and learn more about what was happening regarding the cat. Well, on pg 117 a cat researcher/veternarian named Melody Roellke with the Fl Game Commission acknowledges that her and another person Stephen Obrien discovered that the Fla cat was far from a pure "so called Florida Panther" and because of that wasn't entitled to ESA protection or funding. Basically outside cats were bought by NPS from the Piper roadside zoo facility brought into South Fla by NPS and let loose due to them wanting more cats in Eglds Nat Park. The loosed cats got much farther from the park than people anticipated and bred with many others as they hybridized the remaining remnants of Fla's. "so called Florida Panther " that looks just like all the others around the world. The poor public is sadly very gullible and has way too much respect for so called science being cranked out by financially motivated folks. Then Ms Roellke admits they will use cover words like "heretical genes" ragarding the cat's lineage from then on. Thus the panther gravy train was created IMHO which financially benefits agency staff with jobs and paychecks for life, environmental groups with a good fundraising marketing tool , departments of transportation to employ folks to research underpass locations, the construction industry to build them whether they will work or not and the money tree I am sure bears green fruit for many others. Oh yes, it's a great scam that too few folks understand due to the amount of effort one must put forth to do so.
Frank, with all due respect, from reading that screed it appears that just about everybody but you is in on the scam.
The book "Swamp Screamer", by the way - was that an official state or federal document or proclamation?
Heck NO it wasn't a government produced book. It was written by an outsider (Thank God - for some honesty) that interviewed everyone he quoted and went to panther country with. When I read the book I had questions as to it's accuracy. I hunted down the author's phone number w/o a computer - actualy I had a detective I know track him. I also called him to ask a simple question - "Did you take artistic license with the info in the book". He got somewhat upset at my inference and was very clear to tell me he had notes and tape recordings to back up everything in the book. He was no flunky as some here might assume just because he wasn't part of the government. In fact here is the phone number I was given for him although I was given it years ago - 1 814 692 5097 - address - 895 E Mountain Rd, Port Matilda Pa 00016. OBTW I have never used the address since I called him to verify his accuracy protocol.
Government agency folks I know all tried to discredit the author to me saying he was full of bull and didn't know anything. Isn't that just typical of folks being outed for a scam government or not.
This scam has been going on for so long (more than a generation) some younger participants may be well meaning/intentioned but ignorant of what was done to get to where they are today with too many of the pests. Now at a reasonable population they are just another animal but at today's level they are mainly a pest that is eating it's way thru all Florida's mammals along with all the other uncontrolled predators and on top of that attacking people now routinely which Florida's agencies refuse to deal in a meaningful rapid manner.
Sometimes Rick B. it takes a screed rather than sniping soundbites to help those quite ignorant to a complicated not too well uhnderstood topic like panthers and the fraud all around them.
It really isn't their fault but is the fault of the folks in charge.
If someone is looking for in depth 'history' of the Florida Panther in relation to what is written above, here is some reading:
https://books.google.com/books?id=KGM__PqYIzcC&lpg=PA64&ots=0_NOR4LYYy&d...
While the chapter also has an agenda of sorts (saving the panther), it explains the inbreeding and subsequent need for outside DNA to save the panther. It was never a nefarious plot to fool the american people; it was an attempt to save a species. It seems to have worked...
I worked in the Everglades for three years in the 80's when the panther population was teetering on the brink of extinction. One of the biggest thrills of my life was to finally see one in the wild. Think of it--3 years in the park and one sighting.
I don't have much sympathy for those who claim that there are too many panthers or that the ones who exist are not genetically pure. Nor do I feel badly that hunters in the Big Cypress don't have enough deer to shoot. As pointed out above, water levels probably have a bigger effect on deer populations than do panthers.
Anyone who claims that it is a scam to try to keep the panthers from extinction is pretty cold hearted in my opinion.
Rick
OK, Frank. Whatever you say.
How about the python, Frank? Eats a lot of small mammals, was not government introduced, what about the pythons?
From my previous 5:58 pm post "...along with all the other uncontrolled predators..."
All predators should be controlled along with panthers - plain and simple.
Okay, I will bite.
Kind of true. The Piper Cats were a mix of Central American Cats and Florida Panthers. The Zoo bred them because they were having problems with breeding pure Florida Panthers - many were sterile. NPS released a few (seven) into the Everglades.
Not True. In fact, Roelke discovered there were two distinct groups of Florida Panthers - the original ones (Big Cypress) and the ones with introduced South American DNA (Everglades). However, the Everglades population died out by 1991 - most likely due to mercury poisoning.
Yada, yada, yada...
Read the book (although it sounds like you might have) - my recollection is that they (NPS) never figured the imports could cross the river of grass but they did during a very dry year into Big Cypress.
Truth be known NPS had it right - just go buy a few panthers whenever you run low and kick them out of the back of a truck. Would have saved the taxpayers from having to employ all the unemployables they have been supporting for decades. A third grader could have figured that out but the powers that be had fancier less smart plans.
Now we have a Frankenstein cat that is still defective and always be was created by man not nature.
Again - way to go .gov guys (oh and gals).
So, Frank - taking a guess here - what year was it that you applied to work for the government and got turned down?
Come on Rick B., it's time to reel in the trolling line.
I'm supposing you are including the human predators in this?
It is humans who created this situation in the first place.
Well then, you need to tell the biologists and geneticists they don't know how to do their jobs because, you know, you recollect.
Charles Fergus wrote his book in 1998 as a story. He is a writer, not a biologist. I'm not sure you recollect too well as Fergus was all about saving the panther not, as you seem to prefer, destroying it.
Of course human predators need controls and they have them in Florida - they hunt during daylight hours only, during a date specific season, mostly only take male deer, turkeys on public lands inhabited by panthers in So Fla, do not hunt Fakahatchee 75,000 ac. , do not hunt panther or 10,000 islands refuges ?65000 ac ?, etc., etc. yet panthers hunt all genders and age classes of all mammals in the region they inhabit 7-24-365.
Yes also to the fact you bring up dahkota that it is humans (e.g. government panther protection agencies and their extreme eco .org partners) who have created the impossible situation some must live with most sadly the panthers who kill each other over territory due to management policies that have intentionally forced them to do that due to no upper limit based on current available public acreage and habitat quality.. Oh yes and I know the other complaint against humans as a cause for panther challenges is that humans moved into the panthers, bears, species de jour's home which doesn't cut it once the money is paid and the deed signed since it is all legal in our system until made illegal by law.
I fully understand Mr Fergus was fully supportive of saving panthers and I would never claim otherwise or have I - I understood that from his book and our telecon. His book which clearly exposes truly questionable ethical decisions made as far back as 1998 as well as ever since then, among other junk science examples I have personally witnessed cause me to be very skeptical of most of what government albeit ESA driven and their environmental financially motivated partners have to say about this and many other conservation issues.
We are all subject to being sort of programmed by our life experiences and mine have led me to the beliefs I hold.
I actually see some hope nowadays since agencies are considering changing the delisting criteria for panthers to realistic numbers instead the lunacy and stupidity of housing 3 populations of 240 panthers each two of which (480) would be in Fla which isn't even large enough to hold them properly if we moved all the people out and gave panthers the entire state.
Yes, another screed. If nothing else posting here I have learned a new word. :)
If we could just teach them pesky panthers to eat them pesky anaconda's.....
That python/panther battle may already be happening. They're both such efficient predators the battle might be a draw/tie.