Protecting Florida panther helps environment
About the author
Stephen Williams is president of the Florida Panther Society and lives in North Florida.
Stephen Williams is president of the Florida Panther Society and lives in North Florida.
We don't know if last month's sightings of a Florida panther in San Marco were valid. But we do know that if there's a panther about, he's probably lonely.The Florida panther once roamed throughout the Southeast.But now just 120, plus or minus, panthers survive at the southern tip of Florida almost entirely surrounded by development.
A few male panthers, crowded by ongoing habitat loss, have slipped through the gauntlet of highways, strip malls and gated communities to roam other parts of Florida and even Georgia.But these intrepid wanderers do not find mates, while the panthers they leave behind face the prospect of extinction.
In 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted a Florida panther recovery plan that calls for establishment of three populations of at least 240 panthers apiece within the subspecies' historic range, a hedge against having all panthers in one locale.
The only way to ensure that Florida panthers survive into the future is to protect their remaining habitat where they live and reintroduce them elsewhere so that they can inhabit a much broader area.
A 1993-1995 experimental release of 19 radio-collared cougars from Texas into the Osceola National Forest and Pinhook Swamp found that "deer densities in northern Florida and southern Georgia appear to be sufficient to provide for panther nutritional demands while having minimal impact on a huntable surplus.
"Furthermore, the availability of wild hogs and other small prey not only add to the panthers' diet, they also lessen the number of deer required."By preying on feral hogs, panthers would aid regeneration of longleaf pines whose seed cones and saplings hogs devour.That would in turn help the survival of red-cockaded woodpeckers, gopher tortoises, indigo snakes and other inhabitants of the longleaf pine forests.
The Florida panther is running out of time. We live in a very special region that still has the attributes necessary to support this beautiful animal that was here since time immemorial.
For future generations to thrill to occasional panther sightings, and to enjoy a world not entirely of humanity's own making, panthers must be reintroduced to the Okefenokee ecosystem.
A few male panthers, crowded by ongoing habitat loss, have slipped through the gauntlet of highways, strip malls and gated communities to roam other parts of Florida and even Georgia.But these intrepid wanderers do not find mates, while the panthers they leave behind face the prospect of extinction.
In 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted a Florida panther recovery plan that calls for establishment of three populations of at least 240 panthers apiece within the subspecies' historic range, a hedge against having all panthers in one locale.
The only way to ensure that Florida panthers survive into the future is to protect their remaining habitat where they live and reintroduce them elsewhere so that they can inhabit a much broader area.
A 1993-1995 experimental release of 19 radio-collared cougars from Texas into the Osceola National Forest and Pinhook Swamp found that "deer densities in northern Florida and southern Georgia appear to be sufficient to provide for panther nutritional demands while having minimal impact on a huntable surplus.
"Furthermore, the availability of wild hogs and other small prey not only add to the panthers' diet, they also lessen the number of deer required."By preying on feral hogs, panthers would aid regeneration of longleaf pines whose seed cones and saplings hogs devour.That would in turn help the survival of red-cockaded woodpeckers, gopher tortoises, indigo snakes and other inhabitants of the longleaf pine forests.
The Florida panther is running out of time. We live in a very special region that still has the attributes necessary to support this beautiful animal that was here since time immemorial.
For future generations to thrill to occasional panther sightings, and to enjoy a world not entirely of humanity's own making, panthers must be reintroduced to the Okefenokee ecosystem.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/opinion/letters-readers/2011-10-07/story/lead-letter-protecting-florida-panther-helps-environment#ixzz1aDAR5lOw
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