There are only 180 Florida panthers left, and drivers are killing dozens of them
A FLORIDA panther this week was struck and killed by a car in Collier County, Florida. Florida motorists have killed 17 of the big cats so far this year. Given that the best estimates put the remaining wild panther population somewhere between 100 and 180 animals, Florida drivers have wiped out roughly 10 per cent of total panther population in just seven months.
Last year, Florida drivers killed an unprecedented 24 panthers, according to statistics maintained by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. Collisions with automobiles are the number one cause of panther mortality, responsible for roughly two thirds of all panther deaths each year. And those numbers are rising.
But the Conservation Commission isn’t terribly concerned about these numbers. It’s currently considering a proposal, put forth by a commission member who owns a cattle ranch in the middle of panther country, to drastically cut back on the protections panthers currently enjoy. “Panther populations are straining and currently exceed the tolerance of landowners, residents and recreationists in the region,” the memo reads. It suggests reconsidering the panther’s “endangered” status under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Under current law, there need to be at least three healthy panther populations of 240 individuals each for the government to reconsider the panther’s conservation status. With only one current population of 100 to 180 cats, the state is a long way from achieving this goal. The difficulty of setting up two additional panther populations appears to be the primary reason why the Conservation Commission wants to throw in the towel.
“The current recovery criteria are aspirational rather than practical in nature,” the Commission writes. “Under this federal recovery plan, Florida will never be able to accomplish the goals necessary to recover panther populations to a point where the subspecies can be delisted.”
The proposal calls for the state of Florida to stop dedicating staff and funding to the federal conservation plan.
Public backlash against the proposal has been vehement, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The proposal’s claim that panther populations have “exceeded carrying capacity” for their range has been ridiculed by scientists. — WP-Bloomberg