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Lawsuit Accuses Obama Admin. Of Failing To Protect
Florida Panther
 
By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, February 19, 2010
 
SARASOTA — A coalition of environmental and civic groups sued the Obama administration Thursday over its refusal to declare 1.3 million acres as critical habitat for the endangered Florida panther. The suit, announced at a news conference led by national and state officials of the Sierra Club, targets the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has not blocked any development in panther habitat since 1993.
"It is a scandal that we are filing this lawsuit," said Carl Pope, national president of the Sierra Club, blasting federal officials for allowing the loss of panther habitat. He contended that the panther, Florida's state animal, is on the verge "of being pushed over the edge into extinction."
Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Ken Warren said his agency has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
Panthers once roamed the Southeast, but now only about 100 panthers remain in the wild, prowling the swamps and forests south of the Caloosahatchee River in South Florida.
Although they have been classified as endangered since the first endangered list was issued in 1967, the agency has never designated any place as critical to spare from development —- a fact the agency frequently cites when approving projects that alter panther habitat.
 
In 2002 a group of panther and habitat mapping experts who were convened by the Fish and Wildlife Service recommended the federal agency declare the area where the panthers now live as critical habitat. Doing so would subject any plans to alter that habitat — by development, farming or mining — to increased regulatory scrutiny and additional requirements to make up for the loss of land. It would also make it harder to spend federal money on new roads there.
But the agency did not follow that recommendation. Since then it has twice rejected petitions by environmental groups requesting it declare critical habitat. In one case, it said it feared that putting additional protections on panther habitat would "cause unintended harm by inducing negative public sentiment" toward the animal.
Instead, the agency is now working with a separate coalition of environmental groups and Collier County's major landowners to craft a cooperative plan to protect some habitat while still allowing development.
 
Elizabeth Fleming of Defenders of Wildlife, one of the groups working on the plan, warned that the lawsuit is likely to "damage future efforts to restore the panther within areas of its historic range." And Tom Reese, who represents the Florida Wildlife Federation in negotiations on the plan, contended that their plan will offer stronger protections than any "critical habitat" designation.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Fort Myers Thursday, concerns more than 3 million acres in fast-growing Collier, Lee and Hendry counties. So far no hearing or trial dates have been scheduled, said Gary Davis, the attorney for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, one of the groups joining the Sierra Club in pursuing the case. The others are the Center for Biological Diversity, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Council of Civic Associations, a Bonita Springs activist group. Federal officials have two months to respond.
 
Another environmental group, Wildlaw, sought in 2003 to get the Fish and Wildlife Service to declare critical habitat for the panther. It took the agency five years to say no. At the time, environmental activists blamed the Bush administration's well-known dislike for the Endangered Species Act.
So on the day President Barack Obama took office, the conservancy filed a new critical habitat petition, and it was soon joined by the other environmental groups. Their petitions are based on the 2002 scientific findings from the experts convened by the agency itself.
Conservancy officials have met repeatedly with Obama administration officials to urge them to take action, and even lined up five Florida members of Congress to join in a letter encouraging Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to provide the panther with enhanced habitat protection.
But last week, in a letter signed by Paul Souza, the head of the agency's South Florida office, the Fish and Wildlife Service again rejected the idea of a critical habitat designation, explaining, "We believe our current strategy and priorities are the best paths forward at this time."
 
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Georgian Killer Of Wandering Florida Panther Gets Off
 
Georgia authorities have decided not to file criminal charges against a hunter who shot and killed a panther in 2008 in Troup County, but a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service investigation is under way. The hunter, Dave Adams of Newnan, GA, killed the big cat Nov. 16, 2008, with a muzzleloader while hunting from a tree stand on public Corps of Engineers land near West Point Lake. It 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 conformed the 140-pound cat was a Florida panther -- and a federally protected endangered species. Melissa Cummings, spokeswoman for Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division, told me last week there will be no state charges and referred further questions to federal authorities. Tom MacKenzie, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, said his agency's inquiry remains open and incomplete. "We do still have an open case on the panther shooting in Troup County," he said, adding that he cannot provide additional details until there is a disposition.
 
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Please Sign A Quick Petition To Save The Endangered Florida Panther.
 
Click Here To Take Action For The Endangered Florida Panther.
 
Last year, 24 panthers were killed. A record seventeen were lost to vehicle collisions. One was illegally shot, three died in territory conflicts and two deaths, including the brutal beheading of panther UCFP132, remain under investigation.
 
Last year, in Troup County, Georgia, a deer hunter sitting in a tree shot and killed a panther. Because there are no wild panthers in Georgia, authorities weren't too concerned. After all, they thought, a nonexistent wild animal can't be endangered or protected. They thought wrong.
 
Recently, DNA testing revealed that the animal was actually a federally protected Florida panther that had wandered hundreds of miles north of his namesake state. (Florida panthers once ranged throughout the southeastern U.S., but now survive in just 5 percent of their original territory.)
 
WHAT IF IT WAS THE LAST FLORIDA PANTHER?
 
Sponsored by: Sierra Club
 
What: Petition To Save Critical Habitat for the Florida Panther
 
Target: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
 
No protected habitat exists for the Florida panther, the only big cat east of the Mississippi. And fewer than 100 individual panthers remain, making the Florida Panther one of America's most endangered species.
 
Scientists conclude that the panther's existing habitat is the bare minimum needed for the remaining population to survive. Seven panthers have already been killed on south Florida highways this year, with an additional 24 panthers killed by vehicles in the preceding two years. This situation must not continue.
 
The Interior Department has the ability under the Endangered Species Act to protect the remaining habitat now.
 
Urge Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to designate critical habitat for the Florida panther by clicking the link below!
 
Click Here To Take Action For The Endangered Florida Panther..
 

 
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A Love Affair With Panthers, for the Moment
By NATALIE ANGIER
The New York Times
Article published: January 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/science/05angi.html?pagewanted=1
 
As David Onorato of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission carefully opened the giant refrigerator where the bodies were kept, I couldn’t help myself. My heart raced. My muscles tensed. Every cheesy freezer horror scene from the movies and “The Sopranos” flitted through my mind, and I almost covered my eyes but knew how ridiculous that would be.
 
Yet when the partly frozen female panther was finally laid out on a metal table, the sight was not scary or grisly. It was pure, plain sadness. The vultures may have pecked out her eyes and begun rummaging around beneath her tail, but still the 4-year-old panther was an 80-pound muscular masterpiece, her canines as thick and polished as coffee cup handles, her tawny fur still softly bristly to the touch.
 
The carcass had been recovered from the side of the road a day earlier, another case of big cat meets bigger motorized vehicle in a year that was full of them: 17 endangered Florida panthers were killed by cars and trucks in 2009, the valedictory victim a 3-month-old kitten, as young panthers are called, found on New Year’s Eve. Add in the seven other panthers that were killed by gunshot, one another or “causes unknown,” and the mortality rate seems insupportably high for a wild population estimated at maybe 110 breeding adults.
 
Yet if there is any bright note to be extracted from the death ledgers, it’s that the wild panthers slinking in and around the Everglades — the sole surviving tribe of Puma concolor east of the Mississippi — are apparently breeding avidly enough to replace their fallen numbers. The traffic fatalities are terrible, said Dr. Onorato, but “we must remember there’s reproduction going on, some of which we don’t document.”
 
Call them panthers, pumas, cougars or mountain lions, but cats they remain, and cats have a defiantly syncopated way of coming back again and again. As Dr. Onorato and other researchers see it, the tale of the Florida panther is twitchier and more sinuous than its long tail, a continuing saga of highs and lows, hopes and oh nos.
 
On the one hand, the population in South Florida is stable and possibly even growing by small increments. On the other, the animal is nowhere near meeting the standards necessary for removal from the endangered species list — the existence of three distinct populations of at least 240 adults each, somewhere in the southeastern United States. Moreover, scientists recognize that if economic revival brings fresh rounds of development that intrude into panther habitat, even the extant Florida population could once again suffer.
 
Floridians love their panthers. At the behest of enthusiastic students, the panther was designated the official state animal in 1982. Of all the specialized license plates in Florida, the panther plate is among the most popular, bringing in more than $1 million a year. “All of our research and management, our budget, equipment — everything — is supported by purchases of these cat tags,” said Dr. Onorato, one of five state researchers devoted entirely to studying the biology and conservation of the panther.
 
Some biologists worry that at least part of the infatuation is predicated on the Florida panther’s impeccable record. In contrast with mountain lions in California and other Western states, which have been known to ambush, kill and partly consume the occasional jogger or hiker, there are no recorded cases of a Florida panther’s attacking a human being.
 
Some have suggested that the distinction in how the two cougar populations comport themselves around people stems from slight regional discrepancies in anatomy and leg length. Others have proposed that the Western puma is comparatively more accustomed to hunting large animals and thus sees Homo sapiens as acceptable pickings.
 
Yet scientists point out that DNA analysis has revealed very little genetic difference between the Eastern and Western panther populations, which means there is no reason to believe the Florida panther is a congenital puddy tat. Certainly the animals can be ruthless with one another. Among panthers living in prime areas away from roads, said Dr. Onorato, “the No. 1 cause of death is intraspecific aggression” — one panther killing another. Some authorities suspect it is only a matter of time and sustained human encroachment before a Florida panther pounces on a Florida land speculator.
 
Click Here for the rest of the article....
 
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First 2010 Florida panther death confirmed
 
Published : Tuesday, 19 Jan 2010, 3:56 PM EST
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/state/Copy_of_FLPanther_Death_61667972
 
FORT MYERS - Wildlife officials say the first Florida panther death in 2010 has been confirmed. The panther was found dead Monday night in Lee County.
 
Officials say the panther had puncture wounds on its legs and had hair embedded in the claws of the rear legs. A total of 24 panther deaths were documented in 2009. Officials say Florida has experienced a significant increase in panther numbers over the past two decades. Florida panthers are an endangered species; 100 to 120 remain in the wild.
 
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Private land in southwest Florida to become panther reserve
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_lifestyle_animal/2010/01/private-land-in-southwest-florida-to-become-panther-reserve.html
 
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has approved the conservation of a 4,000-acre chunk of private land for Florida panther habitat.
The service’s Ken Warren said Jan. 21 the land in Hendry County, east of Fort Myers, will be set aside in perpetuity for wildlife habitat — never to be developed.
It is currently a working cattle farm owned by the family of George Milicevic, who purchased the property in the 1940s.
Warren says the land is in an area that is heavily trafficked by the endangered cat, which is among the most endangered species on the planet. Scientists estimate just about 100 Florida panthers remain in the wild.
 
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Help Save the Florida Panther: Record Year for Florida Panther Deaths
By SOP newswire2
http://thesop.org/activism/2010/01/24/help-save-the-florida-panther-record-year-for-florida-panther-deaths
Published: January 24th, 2010 12:15 EST
 
UCFP132, a beautiful Florida Panther, was recently killed by a vehicle and then beheaded along a highway -- a gruesome mutilation of one of North America`s most endangered animals. Deaths of these great cats are far too common. Please help us catch illegal panther killers and save the lives of these highly endangered animals. Please donate today. This terrible loss underscores the tragedy of the record number of endangered Florida panthers killed last year alone. Just Monday night, the first panther death of 2010 was confirmed about one mile south of Corkscrew Road in Lee County, Florida -- a two and a half year old male. These big cats are some of the most endangered animals in the world. Their fight against extinction is only becoming more difficult as they are robbed of places to live and speeding cars turn them into roadkill.
 
Because of the caring support of people like you, I`m here in Florida leading the efforts of Defenders to save these amazing animals. Working with partners throughout the state, we have a comprehensive plan to save panthers from extinction. Please make a tax-deductible donation today to help Defenders catch panther killers, set aside vital habitat for panthers and make Florida`s roadways safer for these big cats. The need for funding to save our Florida panthers is urgent. A four month-old female kitten was recently found dead alongside a road in Naples, FL. Sadly, there are only about 100 Florida panthers left in the world. Last year, 24 panthers were killed. A record seventeen were lost to vehicle collisions. One was illegally shot, three died in territory conflicts and two deaths -- including the brutal beheading of panther UCFP132 -- remain under investigation.
 
Your compassionate donation will help us:
 
Post rewards to catch the person who recently decapitated a panther that had been killed by a vehicle, help put illegal panther killers behind bars and investigate suspicious deaths of these endangered cats.
Install high-tech wildlife sensors on Heartbreak Highway " a road very deadly to panthers. These sensors can reduce wildlife vehicle collisions;
Save panther habitat on the Caloosahatchee River, so that these rare cats can migrate northward and reclaim some of their historic range;
Fight ill-conceived new road projects in Southern Florida that could increase road deaths and further fragment the habitat these great cats need to survive;
and Develop solutions with responsible landowners to realize a future where panthers once more roam along more of their historic range in the American Southeast.
 
We can`t catch the panther killer or implement these other life-saving programs without the caring support of people like you. Please make your tax-deductible donation right now.
 
2010 is already turning into a deadly year for Florida panthers. But with your kind support we can help save the lives of the remaining endangered cats.
 
With Gratitude,
Elizabeth Fleming
Florida Representative
Defenders of Wildlife

 
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17% of Florida Panthers Killed Last Year in Car Collisions
by Matthew McDermott
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/17-percent-florida-panthers-killed-last-year-cars.php
Posted January 8, 2010
 
There are only about 100 Florida panthers left in the wild. And last year 17 of them were killed by collisions with cars, Defenders of Wildlife says (hat tip to Mongabay...). The last of those deaths occurred on the 30th of December, when a four-year old female cat was killed in Collier County. 2009's deaths set a new record for panther deaths due to vehicle collision and is a marked increase from 2008 numbers:
 
In 2008, ten panthers met their doom on the bumper of a speeding car, with the previous record of fifteen cat-car collisions being set in 2007.
 
Though current panther numbers are significantly higher than they were two decades ago, when the cats' population was down to just 20-30 individuals, Defenders of Wildlife says, "The toll that vehicle collisions are taking on the panther's population is a serious obstacle to recovery, and the road and vehicles themselves are inhibiting the panther's efforts to expand its range."
 
Here's Where to Start Solving the Problem As what can be done to minimize panther deaths on Florida's roads, Defenders of Wildlife lists a number on their website, but topping the list is:
 
•The creation of a regional transportation plan that protects panthers, other wildlife and motorists in southwest Florida counties.
•The protection of habitat and corridors on public and private lands that provide a network of panther range.
•The protection of panthers along more highway segments by incorporating wildlife crossing, fencing and additional speed zones in appropriate locations by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissions, southwest Florida transportation departments and area developers.
 
Other than the ongoing problem of habitat loss--each breeding unit of panthers requires about 200 square miles of habitat, something increasingly hard to find in south Florida--automobile collisions are the greatest cause of panther deaths in Florida by humans, the animals being protected from legal hunting in the state since the late 1950s.
 
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2009:A Tragic Year For Florida Panthers
BY BILL SARGENT • FLORIDA TODAY
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100103/SPORTS05/1030321/1002/SPORTS/Tragic+year+in+Florida+for+panthers
Posted January 3, 2010
 
For the endangered Florida Panther, 2009 will be remembered as a tragic year for road kills that went down to the last day. A 3- to 4-month old kitten killed on New Year's Eve brings the count to a record 17 imperiled cats struck down by vehicles in South Florida in '09. Four died in December, three of them young kittens. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which studies and monitors the sparse population, the previous one-year high for road kills was 15 in 2007. "It's an unfortunate milestone," said Gabriella Ferraro, a spokesperson for the FWC at its West Palm Beach office. "All we can hope for is an improvement in 2010 that motorists will take heed of our warnings while they're driving through a panther habitat and to use caution." The kitten, the second fatality in the last three days of the year, was a 30-pound female found on County Barn Road in Naples. It followed the death last Tuesday of a 4-year-old, 80-pound female that was struck two miles north of Jerome on State Road 29 south of Interstate 75 (Alligator Alley) in rural Collier County. SR 29 forms the western boundary of the Big Cypress National Preserve, a prime territory for the panthers.
 
"It was just beyond an area where the roadway is fenced," Ferraro said, describing the area where the adult female was found. Sections of SR 29 and Alligator Alley feature border fencing and wildlife underpasses in an effort to protect the roaming animals from traffic. On Dec. 23, a 3-year-old male weighing 148 pounds was struck and killed on Corkscrew Road. The previous week, the FWC put out a statewide press release warning motorists to slow down in panther speed zones, which are well marked with speed limits of 45 miles per hour at night. Motorists caught violating the speed zones often receive fines exceeding $200 for their first offense and there is a mandatory court appearance for any violation exceeding 29 miles per hour over the posted limit. Darrell Land, a biologist and leader of the FWC's panther study team, said there is a correlation between the increase in vehicle strikes and the growing number of the protected animals. From an estimated 30 panthers 20 years ago, the Florida population has grown to about 100 cats in the wild today. The Florida panther, which once roamed statewide, has been on the federal endangered species list since 1967.
 
"Panther deaths, including those from vehicle strikes, have increased in part because of a rise in its numbers," Land said. "In spite of the modest increase in numbers, every cat remains important to the survival of the species in the wild." Statistics kept by the FWC show the number of panther deaths by collisions has been increasing since 2000. Panthers are nocturnal in nature and most are struck crossing roadways at night. Some of the huge adult cats range great distances for their food and territorial demands. Many are equipped with radio collars and microchips and their whereabouts are monitored by FWC biologists. Most of the cats live in South and Southwest Florida. "One cat may require 30 to 100 square miles, especially the males," said Gary Morse, a spokesman in the FWC's Lakeland office. "Another answer is to increase habitat for these animals. Habitat loss has been a critical factor."
 
Morse reiterated how a male panther which had been equipped with a radio collar was tracked as far north as Disney World property in Central Florida in the mid 1990s. Sightings have been reported as far north as Volusia County west of Daytona Beach. Five of the 17 documented road kills occurred near Immokalee in Collier County on the edge of the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, another prime panther area. Two were 3- to 4-month old kittens. One kitten and a 3- to 4-year-old female were killed in almost the identical spot 2 miles east of Immokalee on County Road 846 in a span of three days in October. The second kitten was struck about 20 miles away 12 days later on County Road 833. A total of 24 wild panthers died in 2009. Three resulted from fights with other panthers and two causes of deaths remain unknown. Two others are under investigation, including the headless remains of an adult found along the Florida Turnpike near the Osceola-Indian River county line in November. A 19-year-old female, one of the oldest in captivity at White Oak, was killed by euthanasia.
 
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Florida Panther Found Decapitated Near Yeehaw Junction
By Craig Pittman, St. Pete Times staff writer
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/florida-panther-found-decapitated-near-yeehaw-junction/1053347
In Print: Saturday, November 21, 2009
 
The location was odd enough. An anonymous caller reported seeing a dead Florida panther by the side of the Florida Turnpike near Yeehaw Junction. That's more than 150 miles north of where most panthers live. When Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staffers checked out the tip Thursday afternoon, they discovered something more disturbing. Someone had cut off the panther's head. On Friday the state wildlife agency offered a reward of up to $1,000 for information that could lead to the arrest of whomever took the grisly souvenir. Know anything? Anyone with information about the headless Florida panther found Thursday by the Florida Turnpike should call the state's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922. Callers can remain anonymous. Callers whose information leads to an arrest are eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
 
"To just simply whack off a panther's head is against the law," explained agency spokeswoman Joy Hill. Possession of panther parts — even ones that came from an animal that was already dead — is illegal without a state permit, she said. The decapitated panther, which was found near the Osceola-Indian River county line, had apparently been dead for a couple of days before it was reported, Hill said. At this point, though, no one can say for sure where the panther was killed or what killed it, much less where its head has gone. "It appears to have been hit by a car," she said. "It was right there on the turnpike."
 
So far this year 20 panthers have died, according to Dave Onorato, a scientist with the wildlife commission's panther team. Twelve of the 20 were run over, making cars and trucks the primary predator of what the Chickasaw Indians once called "the cat of god." Two centuries ago the Florida panther roamed throughout the Southeast. But since at least 1967, when it was included in the nation's first endangered species list, the panther population has been largely confined to the state's swampy southern tip. About 100 prowl the woods and water there now, hunting for deer and hogs. From time to time, though, one of the wide-ranging males will show up well north of its normal habitat. Four years ago one was run over on Interstate 95 near St. Augustine. Although it's been Florida's official state animal since 1981 — not to mention a popular license plate icon and the mascot of Miami's pro hockey team — panthers have had it particularly rough lately. In April, someone shot a female panther in Hendry County near the Big Cypress National Preserve. Despite the offer of a $15,000 reward, federal officials still have made no arrests in that case. More problematic was the case of a hunter in Georgia who called authorities last fall to report that he'd shot a big cat he thought was threatening him. Genetic tests this summer confirmed that it was a male panther that had roamed so far north it had crossed the state line. And then there's another panther mystery. Officials still have not revealed the cause of death for one panther found dead last month near the Ave Maria development in Collier County, saying the case is still under investigation.
 
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Scientists recommend improvements after reviewing Panther protection plan for eastern Collier
By ERIC STAATS
Posted October 28, 2009 at 7:39PM
 
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/oct/28/scientists-recommend-improvements-panther-plan/ naplesnews.com
 
COLLIER COUNTY — A team of scientists is calling for improvements to a plan to protect the endangered Florida panther in eastern Collier County. In an 80-page report — chock full of number-crunching tables, aerial images and detailed maps — the scientists issue a ground-breaking overview of what could become the plan by which panthers either stay or disappear in the heart of what is left of their habitat. The report strikes a careful bottom line: A 2008 proposal by a coalition of environmental groups and farmers and ranchers to guide growth across almost 200,000 acres around Immokalee “would represent an enhancement of panther conservation” over existing controls, the report states. “The conservation value to panthers would increase,” even more if a long list of recommendations by the science review team is added to the plan. However, it doesn’t change the fact that growth in eastern Collier County has the potential to cut into habitat for the panther, and that “does not aid panther recovery,” the report concludes. “In an ideal world, obviously, we wouldn’t have any development in panther habitat,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service panther recovery coordinator Chris Belden, a member of the science review team.
 
The report also recommends that a proposed new Interstate 75 interchange at either Everglades Boulevard or two miles east, between the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and Desoto Boulevard, “receive no further consideration” because of its impact to panther habitat. The interchange is not part of the 2008 plan, which builds on a landmark rural growth plan adopted by Collier County in 2002. The 2002 plan, which is voluntary, allows landowners across almost 200,000 acres around Immokalee to preserve natural land in return for credits to develop on less sensitive land. The Florida Panther Protection Plan would award credits for preservation of agricultural land, create two panther travel corridors, cap development at 45,000 acres and require additional mitigation under the federal permitting program for development in panther habitat. The plan also proposed new fees on mitigation credits and real estate sales in eastern Collier County that would raise an estimated $150 million to buy panther habitat for preservation and to pay for habitat restoration and wildlife crossings. The number of wild panthers had dwindled to around 30 before scientists released eight female Texas cougars into South Florida to restore the population’s genetic diversity. Now, scientists estimate between 100 and 120 panthers roam across less than 5 percent of its historic range, mostly south of the Caloosahatchee River. Scientists say habitat loss continues to threaten the survival of the panther, including in eastern Collier County, where the 2002 plan laid the groundwork for the new town of Ave Maria and Ave Maria University. A second new town, called Big Cypress, and an earthmine also are on the drawing board. The coalition that hand-picked the six scientists to answer the question of whether the plan would benefit the Florida panther issued an upbeat assessment of the science review. “The PRT (Panther Review Team) unequivocally and unanimously responded in the affirmative,” the statement says. Other members of the review team besides Belden were senior scientist Randy Kautz and vice president Tom Logan, with consultants Breedlove, Dennis and Associates in Tallahassee; Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission panther team leader Darrell Land; Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologist David Shindle; and University of Central Florida research associate Daniel Smith.
 
As for the recommendations to improve the plan, the coalition will carefully consider whether they are feasible in light of other issues the review team did not tackle, including private property rights and economic viability, the statement says. The Florida Panther Protection Plan coalition includes Audubon of Florida, Collier County Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Florida Wildlife Federation and landowners Alico Land Development Corp., Barron Collier Partnership, Collier Enterprises, Consolidated Citrus LP, English Brothers, Half Circle L Ranch Partnership, Pacific Tomato Growers Ltd. and Sunniland Family Limited Partnership. The science review team’s recommendations would bring the plan “very close” to a proposal put forth by the Conservancy, which has been critical of the coalition’s plan, Conservancy President Andrew McElwaine said. “The concern I have going forward is there not be an effort to cherry pick the recommendations but that they go forward as a bloc,” McElwaine said. The federal permitting mechanism that would put the plan into action will require further review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including public input. Collier County also will have to adopt changes to its 2002 plan, which will require a sign-off from the state Department of Community Affairs.
 
Recommendations Highlights of findings and recommendations of a panel of scientists reviewing a plan for Florida panther protection across parts of 200,000 acres around Immokalee:
 
Preserve an additional 38,746 acres, resulting in the preservation of 140,922 acres.
Almost 9,000 acres recommended for additional preservation are designated as potential future development on a 2050 Concept Plan map drawn up by landowners.
Land remaining for development would be sufficient to accommodate a proposed 45,000-acre development cap and would impact 2,084 acres of primary panther habitat.
Primary habitat shouldn’t be developed until less crucial panther habitat is converted to urban uses.
New roads should not cut through preserve areas.
Prohibit mining in additional preserve areas and count mines toward the acreage cap on development.
Panther travel corridors should be widened and reconfigured with broader starting and ending points.

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Authorities investigating suspicious panther death; three others hit by vehicles
By ERIC STAATS
Posted November 2, 2009 at 3:36PM
 
NAPLES — Authorities are investigating the death of a Florida panther that had been kept secret until Monday. The death of uncollared Florida panther No. 128, UCFP128 for short, was listed in an e-mail from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission panther team leader Darrell Land along with three panthers struck and killed by vehicles in the past two weeks. Land’s e-mail includes no details about the panther death under investigation except to list it between two other panther deaths Oct. 7 and Oct. 19. On Oct. 21, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with help from the Conservation Commission and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, searched a house at 2880 20th Avenue S.E. in Golden Gate Estates in connection with a wildlife violation investigation, agents said. They refused again Monday to say whether the search was panther-related. “I can’t confirm what we’re looking at out there,” Conservation Commission Capt. Jayson Horadam. “It’s a large investigation, and it’s going to take some time.” A Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman was similarly tight-lipped Monday. “I can neither confirm nor deny that UCFP128 is/was in any way related to the search of a home on Oct. 21 in Golden Gate Estates,” agency spokesman Ken Warren wrote in an e-mail.
 
Agents arrived at the house, which property records list as being owned by Terry L. Sirosky, at about 7:30 a.m. and spent the day there. The search extended to a dark blue Chevrolet Silverado with Wakulla County license plates in the middle of 18th Avenue S.E., one block away. The truck later was driven to the house, where it was still parked the next morning. Earlier in the day, K-9 units were brought in to aid in the search, which extended to the home’s wooded back yard. Land, the Conservation Commission biologist, said the agency delayed an announcement of the three panthers killed by vehicles because of uncertainty about how to number the deaths given that the death of No. 128 had not been made public.
 
The Conservation Commission has worked out a system to avoid delaying announcements of panther deaths in the future, Land said. In the first of those three deaths, a 3- to 4-month-old male kitten, weighing 21 pounds, was killed along Immokalee Road, about two miles east of Immokalee, on Oct. 19. Two days later, a 3- to 4-year-old female panther, thought to be the kitten’s mother, was killed near the same spot, according to Land’s e-mail Monday. Then, on Sunday, a 3- to 4-month-old female kitten weighing 17 pounds was struck and killed by a vehicle at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in Hendry County. In light of the previous two deaths east of Immokalee, the kitten was moved away from the road, and Conservation Commission officers stayed on the scene for several hours after dark to slow down traffic in the area, Land reported. The mother panther sat next to the dead kitten for about 30 minutes before moving away, officers said. The kitten was removed from the scene Monday morning, Land said. Conservation Commission officers were planning to be in the area again overnight Monday to try to avert a repeat of the deaths east of Immokalee. “That’s what we’re hoping,” Land said. So far this year, 12 panthers have been struck and killed by vehicles among a total of 18 deaths. They include three panthers killed by other panthers, a panther found shot in April in Hendry County and two other panther deaths in which the cause is listed as unknown. A $15,000 reward has been issued for information related to the shooting of the panther in Hendry County. Biologists have been unable to determine a cause of death for a 2-year-old male panther found dead in an orange grove east of Ave Maria in September. The same is true for a 3- to 4-year-old female panther found dead in the Turner River in Big Cypress National Preserve in October. Scientists estimate there are 120 panthers left in the wild. Connect with Eric Staats at www.naplesnews.com/staff/eric_staats/.

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Two Recent Panther Deaths Confound Biologists
 
By ERIC STAATS
 
Published Monday, October 19, 2009
 
COLLIER COUNTY — A case of a Florida panther found dead in an orange grove east of Ave Maria has been turned over to federal investigators. The cause of death is unknown, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist Dave Onorato said Monday. Onorato said he could not comment further because of the federal investigation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could not be reached for comment late Monday afternoon. The death of the endangered wildcat is the second in the past month that has confounded panther biologists and follows on the discovery in April of a panther shot and killed in Hendry County.
 
A $15,000 reward has been offered for information about that shooting, which also is under investigation by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
 
An estimated 100 to 120 panthers are left in the wild, an increase from as few as 30 in the 1980s, but habitat loss remains a barrier to their recovery, scientists say. So far this year, 14 panthers have been killed, three of them by other panthers. Nine have been struck and killed by vehicles. The panther found in the orange grove Sept. 15 was an uncollared 2-year-old male, according to the monthly newsletter of the Friends of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. “There seems to be a lot of mystery about it,” Florida Wildlife Federation field representative Nancy Payton said Monday. In another incident earlier this month, a panther was found floating dead in the Turner River in Big Cypress National Preserve, less than a half mile south of U.S. 41 East. A state veterinarian concluded the cause of that panther’s death was blunt force trauma to the abdomen but it could not be attributed to a vehicle strike, Onorato said. The carcass did not have the telltale signs of a vehicle strike, including fur torn off or a cracked skull or broken spine from a collision, he said.
 
Onorato theorized that the injury could have been sustained when the panther jumped from a tree or was taking down prey. A canoe guide for the Ivey House in Everglades City discovered the panther Oct. 9 floating in about 17 inches of water, according to a National Park Service report. The panther was an uncollared female, estimated at between 3 and 4 years old, and had been dead for about two days, according to the report. Investigators found no signs of alligators or another panther, no sign of a struggle in surrounding vegetation and no clear path from the carcass to uplands, the report states. Law enforcement officers found a possible blood spot on the westbound lanes of U.S. 41 and took samples for analysis, the report states. The discovery of the panther in the river is fueling calls for new measures to protect Florida panthers along U.S. 41 at Turner River. Since 1984, eight Florida panthers have been struck by vehicles along the same stretch of U.S. 41 near Turner River, six of them since 2004. A proposal for a wildlife crossing has met with opposition from preserve users upset about fencing limiting their access and from an Indian tribe with a sacred cultural site nearby. Environmental groups are pushing for more immediate steps, including a lower daytime speed limit, stepped up enforcement and research into roadside systems to alert drivers to wildlife. “We need something there right now,” said Elizabeth Fleming, Florida representative for Defenders of Wildlife.
 
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/oct/19/two-recent-panther-deaths-confound-biologists
 
Connect with Eric Staats at www.naplesnews.com/staff/eric_staats/
 


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Crestview Florida Police Officer Reports Panther Sighting
 
October 16, 2009 2:24 PM
 
Brian Hughes | Crestview News Bulletin
 
A Crestview Police officer reported seeing a Florida panther at Davidson Middle School Thursday night. Ironically, the reported sighting occurred not too long after a football game at the school where the Davidson players emerged with a 26-0 win over a rival team from Meigs Middle School. Davidson Middle School’s mascot is the Florida panther.
 
“He just stopped by to visit his brothers,” Crestview Police Department shift commander Lt. Andrew Schneider said jokingly.
 
Crestview Police Officer Sgt. Brian Muhlbach reported spotting the animal about10:15 p.m. Thursday, about an hour and a half after the football the game. Muhlbach was not on duty Friday afternoon and could not be reached. According to a call report, he told dispatchers Thursday night he saw a panther that appeared to be between “60-70 pounds.” He kept the animal in sight while waiting for animal control, the dipatch report states. “Unit three, advise to see if they have a tranquilizer gun available,” he was stated as saying. The dispatcher advised Muhlback panthers “are an endangered species. Only engage as a last resort.” Shortly afterwards, Muhlbach told dispatchers he had lost sight of the animal.
 
The appearance of a Florida panther this far north in the state is a rare occurrence, said Susan Carroll-Douglas, wildlife assistant biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission in Panama City. “They can make it that far north, but generally speaking they are from south Florida,” Carroll-Douglas said. “If there is a panther in the Crestview area, it would be an abnormality.” She said that residents do not need to be overly worried if indeed a panther is in the area.
 
“Panthers are not any more aggressive toward people than other predators,” Carroll-Douglas said. “We would advise anyone to take caution with small pets, but we have not had any more conflicts with panthers than we do with other species we generally have in the Panhandle.”
 
Carroll-Douglas asked residents to document any evidence of a panther in the area.
 
“If anybody gets any tracks or a photograph, we would love to take a look at them,” she said.
 
Anyone with a sighting can call Call the commission at (850) 265-3676.
 


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Officials Say Slain Panther's Ga. Trip A Rarity
 
By DAVE NICHOLSON
 
Published: September 6, 2009
 
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/06/na-slain-panthers-ga-trip-a-rarity-officials-say/news-breaking/
 
TAMPA - A DNA test recently confirmed that a big cat killed in November in western Georgia was a Florida panther, but biologists say it doesn't mean the endangered animals are expanding their range.
 
Biologists say the estimated 100 to 120 panthers live almost exclusively in southern Florida and there's no evidence they are establishing themselves that far north.
 
But they sometimes show up in unexpected places, including near Disney World and Daytona. One was killed more than six years ago when it tried to dart across Interstate 4 near a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Seffner.
 
Male panthers are known to roam great distances for mates. The panther killed Nov. 16 near LaGrange, about 70 miles southwest of Atlanta, was likely searching for females, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Gary Morse said. "As much as they travel, it shouldn't surprise anyone" that he headed north and kept going, Morse said. Panthers largely stay in their domain down south, and even males rarely cross Interstate 4, Morse said. The 140-pound male killed in Georgia was an exception. A deer hunter shot the wayward panther with a muzzleloader when the cat stopped at his tree stand and looked up at him.
 
"He felt threatened and he shot it," said Robin Hill, a spokeswoman for the Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division. The hunter contacted authorities immediately to report what he had done, and no charges have been filed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office of law enforcement is investigating because the Florida panther is a federally protected endangered species.
 
The cat was so healthy that biologists wondered whether it was a captive that escaped or had been set free, but a DNA test showed he had been fathered by a wild Florida panther. Biologists say panthers, a cousin of the cougar and mountain lion, once ranged as far as Texas and Tennessee. Hill said her agency receives many reports of panther sightings, but this is the first confirmed presence in the state in years. Georgia biologists don't view this as a sign that panthers are established in the state, she said.
 
Morse agrees. Younger males often are chased out of a territory by a dominant male that doesn't want competition for females. The displaced males will walk miles in search of females, eventually turning around when they find none, Morse said. The panther that met his demise in Georgia was 500 to 600 miles north of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, a haven for the animals near Naples. Morse likened the male panthers' urge to roam to human counterparts who look for love in nightclubs. "They're looking for bars with female panthers in them," he said.
 


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Make (Lots Of) Room For Panthers
 
Palm Beach Post, October 4, 2009
 
By the Post Editorial Board
 
Do roughly 100 animals deserve 3 million acres of Florida? If the animals are endangered, the answer may have to be yes. At the very least, we're glad that someone is asking.
 
Last month, the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate 3 million acres in western Palm Beach and Broward and eastern Collier counties as protected Florida panther habitat. Once, thousands of tawny-colored panthers roamed not just the state but the Southeastern U.S. There remain 100 to 120, living south of the Caloosahatchee River that flows from Lake Okeechobee to Fort Myers. That population is too small for genetic diversity.
 
Admittedly, the request is staggering. The area would be larger than Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties combined, with almost enough left over for another Martin and St. Lucie. Consider, though, that the federal government created the first panther preservation plan nearly 20 years ago and has updated it three times, yet the numbers haven't improved enough. The panthers' biggest threat is habitat loss from development. That development also brings roads, on which cars kill the animals.
 
According to the petition, the goal over the next 12 years should be to establish three populations of roughly 240 panthers each. The Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to rule by mid-December. The Endangered Species Act saved the bald eagle, the national bird. You can see bald eagles in Florida. The Endangered Species Act also saved the American alligator, to the point where Florida now can hold a gator hunting season. So the idea of saving the Florida panther really should not seem far-fetched - just overdue.
 
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2009/palm-beach-post-10-04-2009.html
 


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Paper Backs Panther Protection Proposal
 
http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2009/10/center-for-biological-diversity.html
 
Arguing that "the idea of saving the Florida panther really should not seem far-fetched -- just overdue," the Palm Beach Post endorsed the Center for Biological Diversity's scientific petition to establish a 3-million-acre reserve for the endangered species. "The request is staggering," the paper said, but if the Endangered Species Act saved the bald eagle and American alligator, it can save the Florida panther too -- if we use its powerful habitat protection tools.
 
Down to about 100 animals in a single population and suffering from lack of genetic diversity, the Florida panther needs room to grow to three large populations. The Center's petition filed in September is designed to give it the room to do so.
 


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Students Getting Their Feet Wet With LIFE Program
Marguerite Jordan
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/dec/02/students-getting-their-feet-wet-life-program/
Posted December 2, 2009 at 4:14 p.m.
 
Talk about getting your feet wet. Hundreds of Collier County middle school students got the chance to experience the outdoors up close and personal, thanks to a state environmental program. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Learning in Florida’s Environment program partnered with Collier County public schools, the Florida Panther Refuge (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, South Florida Water Management District, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge to expose more Florida students to outdoor learning experiences on public lands. As part of the 14th LIFE program in Florida, nearly 500 middle school students from Immokalee, Manatee and Golden Gate middle schools recently learned science concepts, methods and skills through hands-on labs at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and two other sites in Collier County in October and November. “This unique learning experience engages students in their own scientific investigations and gives them an opportunity to meet real scientists who protect, study and manage refuges and wildlife management areas,” said Greg Ira, director of DEP’s Environmental Education. “During the labs, students ... explore and measure non-living components of the environment such as temperature, humidity, light intensity and soil moisture, and learn about the threats, biology and protection of the endangered Florida panther.”
 
As part of the science lessons, students used Global Positioning Systems to participate in a scavenger hunt where they learned more about the Florida panther in its natural habitat. One location in the activity led students to a pen that is sometimes used to introduce panthers to the area before they are eventually released. “Florida Panther Refuge is pleased to host a LIFE program for Collier County students who might not otherwise visit panther habitat,” said Ben Nottingham, acting project leader of the Southwest Florida Gulf Coast Refuge Complex, Florida Panther and Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Another aspect of the labs required the students from each middle school to explore a service learning topic that is related to a local environmental issue impacting their school. Golden Gate Middle School students studied water quality in local canals, Manatee Middle School students explored local invasive and exotic species and Immokalee Middle School students examined common non-point sources of pollution such as oil from old cars and agricultural chemicals. Since 2004, more than 6,300 future scientists and environmental stewards have participated in the LIFE program. The LIFE initiative established a systematic and statewide network of field-based, environmental-science programs that brings students out to public lands to learn science. The goals of the LIFE program are increased student achievement, teacher professional development in science, increased participation of underserved and under-represented populations and increased stewardship of public lands. LIFE program activities are consistent with the new Governor’s Serve to Preserve: Green Schools awards program and the field experiences that students participate in are examples of using the natural environment to green the curriculum. For more information about DEP’s LIFE and other Office of Environmental Education programs, visit.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/ed. For more information on sponsoring a LIFE site or volunteering for the LIFE program, contact Greg Ira at (850) 245-2132.
 
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Endangered Panther Killed By Hit And Run Driver
 
NAPLES — A Florida panther was struck and killed by a vehicle over the Labor Day 2009 weekend on Interstate 75, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported.
 
The 2-year-old female panther was hit about three miles east of the toll booth in Collier County at around 3 a.m. Sunday, the report said.
 
An officer with the Florida Highway Patrol found the panther during routine patrols; the motorist that struck the endangered cat did not stop or report the collision.
 
The uncollared panther is the ninth panther to have died in collisions with vehicles this year; four other panthers have died of other causes, according to state figures.
 
The carcass will be sent to Gainesville for a necropsy, and the remains will be kept at the Florida Museum of Natural History, according to the Conservation Commission.
 


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Tune into Tampa Bay's WMNF (88.5 FM Tampa Bay) community radio every Thursday morning from 9:06 AM until 10:01 AM to hear Pete Gallagher (and occasionally a guest), present Florida's finest folk artists, singer/songwriters and instrumentalists on the "Florida Folk Show" -- the only radio show focused totally on Florida folk music. CLICK HERE to pick up WMNF streaming audio. Call in your on-air requests to (813) 239-9663
 


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Pat Barmore and Pete Gallagher host a weekly 'Florida Folk Night at 'The Sloppy Pelican' every Thursday evening from 6PM until 10PM.
 
Each week a 'Featured Artist' from around the state will present a whole set of music, with Florida's best singer/songwriters joining in before and after. It's one good place to catch Tom Gribbin, Raiford Starke, Dennis Wallace, Kevin Holloway, Joe First and other great Florida artists each week.
 
For the featured artist schedule at Florida Folk Night at The Sloppy Pelican CLICK HERE
 
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