Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Lisa Östberg, Southwest Florida Coexistence Coordinator

Last week, I had one of the best days of my life: after many years of working as a volunteer and now for Defenders as its Florida coexistence coordinator, I had the opportunity to witness a Florida panther being released into the wild!

©Tim Donovan/FWC

The panther was one of a pair of siblings orphaned back in 2011 when their mother was killed. They were taken to a special rehabilitation facility where they were allowed to grow to young adulthood with very little exposure to humans, and were taught to hunt and fend for themselves. The female of the pair was successfully released into the Picayune Strand State Forest a few weeks ago, and today the male was released into a very remote part of southwest Palm Beach County within the Rotenberger Wildlife Management Area.

I have never definitively seen a panther in the wild, although I’ve been the first on site at one roadkill and witnessed the “cleanup” at another. Today’s experience was a world away – away from that sadness, away from roads, away from people. The young panther was released on public preserve lands rife with prey like deer and hogs, which should provide this young male with lots of food as he learns to make his way in the wild.

The release itself was over in almost a heartbeat: his crate was opened and for a few seconds we all waited in crazy suspense while he stayed tucked inside. But then, in an instant, he peeked out, looked to one side and then ran like crazy into the wind, and within a few seconds turned off the dirt road and into the woods.

Quite simply, the experience was magical: seeing the hope on everyone’s face as this young male headed out to make his future in the wild was really special, and I know we all hope that he, and Florida panthers in general, can continue to survive and thrive in the wild.

After just a moment’s hesitation, the panther takes off into the wild. (©Lisa Östberg)

Elizabeth Fleming, Florida Representative 

One of the greatest obstacles to helping the Florida panther recover is that even the people who live with these animals in their backyard don’t always realize the steps they can take to protect them. Though already critically endangered, these panthers are constantly in danger thanks to collisions with vehicles, shrinking habitat, and people’s intolerance for living with a large predator. So as part of our campaign to Give Panthers a Brake, Defenders has been very busy with panther outreach in the lead up to Save the Florida Panther Day on March 16, 2013 and beyond.

Holding exhibits at festivals and other local events allows us to talk directly to people who live in panther country about how to coexist with panthers. (c) Lisa Östberg

In 1990, the state legislature established the third Saturday in March as Save the Florida Panther Day and governors have issued official proclamations promoting the day ever since. This year, Defenders has participated in several events across the state to educate Florida residents about panthers and what they can do to help them:

• On February 23rd and 24th, Defenders’ Southwest Florida Coexistence Coordinator and members of Defenders’ Panther Citizen Action Taskforce (PCAT) participated in the annual Swamp Cabbage Festival in LaBelle, Florida in rural Hendry County, which draws between 30,000 and 50,000 people each year. We joined efforts with other members of the Florida Panther Outreach Team to raise awareness about our official endangered state animal, and how to live and recreate responsibly in panther country. As part of our exhibit, we set up a demonstration of a predator-resistant enclosure and taught visitors how to protect their pets and livestock from local predators such as panthers, coyotes, bobcats, feral dogs and raccoons. We also handed out information on Defenders’ programs that help people to afford and construct these enclosures on their property.
• Defenders also handed out information about living in panther country at the Florida Panther Day event at the Naples Zoo. Several thousand people stopped by to meet panther field biologists, engage in activities for children and learn about opportunities to get involved in panther conservation.
• We staffed a table at a festival in the town of Ave Maria to provide information to hundreds of visitors about living responsibly with Florida panthers and other wildlife. This fairly new town, just 10 miles north of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, has a small but growing residential population that is in need of constant education about living with panthers, bears and other local wildlife.
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  We were able to run ads on the scoreboard, in the lobby, and on the LED ring around the stadium.

  Throughout the month of March, Defenders and Panther Citizen Assistance Taskforce volunteers have been holding a table display at the Florida Panthers NHL hockey team games at the BB&T arena in Sunrise (a suburb of Fort Lauderdale), so that we can provide information on panthers to fans attending games and other events. Thanks to our supporters, we were able to fund a huge advertising blitz in the stadium to remind drivers to slow down on Florida’s roads. Our message is displayed on the scoreboard, the giant video screen at the entrance, even on the radio during home games, all to get the word out to visitors and residents that the real panthers – the four-legged ones – need a BRAKE!

• We worked to get an official proclamation signed by Florida Governor Rick Scott declaring March 16, 2013 as Save the Florida Panther Day. As part of the celebration, we staffed a booth at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge’s annual open house, which took place the same day. The refuge is usually closed to the public, so the open house gave visitors the opportunity to explore panther habitat through swamp buggy tours and guided walks. Visitors also attended presentations by panther biologists and visited with Defenders and other educational organizations and agencies.
• We’re working with other members of the Florida Panther Outreach Team to provide information about living with Florida panthers at the Collier County Fair. The predator-resistant livestock enclosure is on display to show people how to protect their livestock and pets at night. Thousands of rural residents and landowners have visited our display and talked to our outreach team members.

After we launched our campaign last month, our supporters across the U.S. have answered the call to help us Give Panthers a Brake. More than 59,000 of you have written to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking them to make it a priority to protect additional panther habitat and travel corridors to give these beautiful big cats more room to roam!

The last couple of months have been a busy time here at the Defenders Florida Office, but we’re glad that there are so many great opportunities to spread the word about the plight of these beautiful wild felines, and to help Floridians and panthers coexist. Taking this time to focus on the Florida panther reminds all of us that they need our assistance year-round.

Elizabeth Fleming, Florida Representative

With an estimated 100 to 160 animals left in the wild, the Florida panther is one of the most endangered mammals in the United States, and the last surviving puma subspecies in the eastern U.S. Once ranging throughout much of the southeastern part of the country, the panther has been restricted to a fraction of its historic range by past persecution and today’s unchecked development. Highway expansions continue to sever panther habitat, and collisions with vehicles take a terrible toll on these wide-ranging cats each year – a record 19 Florida panthers were killed while trying to cross roads in 2012.  And since urban and suburban areas now border panther habitat in many locations, human-panther interactions are on the rise.

The economic downturn provided a respite from the rapid development that had been gobbling up panther habitat. But now that the economy is picking up, plans are underway to build several new highways across rural parts of Florida that would fragment panther habitat and lead to more development and additional deaths on roads. New subdivisions are under construction, large scale developments and towns are being planned and lands important to panthers are currently offered for sale.

We have a limited window of time to protect and restore undeveloped tracts of land and connected habitat before they are lost forever. Right now is the time to act. That is why Defenders is launching the “Give Panthers a Brake” campaign — to raise awareness about the plight of the critically endangered Florida panther. We want to highlight the major threats to these beautiful felines: loss of habitat, collisions with vehicles and lack of tolerance for living with a large predator. The more Floridians know about these threats to their State Animal, the better chance we have to ensure a future for these majestic big cats.

To help raise awareness about Florida panthers, we’re kicking off this campaign at the home of Florida’s aptly-named pro hockey team: the Florida Panthers! We’re trying to raise enough money for a huge advertising blitz in the stadium throughout the month of March. We’ll be able to place our message on the scoreboard, the giant video screen at the entrance, even on the radio during home games, all to get the word out that the real panthers – the four-legged ones – need a BRAKE!

© Robert Repenning

Another big part of this campaign is to reduce the number of panthers killed on roads each year. Defenders is working to make existing roads safer for panthers to cross, and to prevent new roads that would sever important conservation lands and wildlife travel corridors. And we are encouraging Florida residents and visitors to remain alert, obey speed limits and watch out for wildlife while driving at all times, but especially at night when panthers are most active and visibility is low.

We also recognize that helping people coexist with the Florida panther is vital to building the acceptance and support needed to save this subspecies. Through partnerships, education, research, outreach and advocacy, we work to increase understanding of these wild predators to help people and panthers share the landscape.

The last piece of the puzzle is giving Florida panthers more room to roam! We are asking federal agencies to make it a priority to secure habitat and travel corridors for panthers by creating and expanding new national wildlife refuges and offering incentives to private landowners to ensure that the lands panthers need the most will never be developed.

There are plenty of ways for you to get involved in the Give Panthers a Brake campaign, too — click here to learn more! Together we can make sure the Florida panther can continue to be an icon of the Florida landscape for generations to come.

Elizabeth Fleming, Florida Representative 

With only an estimated 100 to 160 individuals remaining in the wild, the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) is one of the most endangered mammals in the United States, and the last surviving puma subspecies in the eastern U.S. Though its historic range spanned eight southeastern states, today the panther is restricted to less than 5 percent of its original habitat, remaining as a single breeding population in south Florida.

Animals like the Florida panther depend on the state’s public lands for survival.

While no one knows how many panthers once roamed the southeastern states, one estimate suggests 1,360 in Florida alone. Once European settlers arrived, clear-cutting, building and other human activities began to destroy and degrade panther habitat and break it up into disconnected fragments. Misconceptions and fear led to widespread persecution — the state of Florida even authorized a $5 bounty for panther scalps in 1887 — and panthers were practically hunted out of existence by the turn of the century. Not until 1950 did Florida end the bounty and begin to look toward the protection of the species.

When the Endangered Species Act (ESA) became law in 1973, the Florida panther was one of the first species listed. The population at that time was only an estimated 12 to 20 individuals. Though it is still endangered today, in the decades since its listing, great strides have been made to halt the panther’s downward spiral towards extinction.

In 1981, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued the first Florida Panther Recovery Plan to prevent the species’ extinction and to re-establish viable populations of the Florida panther in its former range. This spurred several years of progress for the Floria panther, in which it was designated the official state animal, and the Florida state legislature approved new programs to help fund panther conservation and research. The 1980s also saw speed limits reduced to 45 mph at night on certain key roads to protect panthers from being hit by speeding vehicles, and in the 1990s, the Florida Department of Transportation included wildlife underpasses and fencing along more than 40 miles of roadway. Since then, additional slow-speed zones have been designated, more crossings have been installed, and others are planned to protect panthers on dangerous roads.

Slow zones help increase awareness of panthers on roads.

The listing under the ESA also prompted federal and state agencies to purchase additional land to give panthers more room to roam. Today, Florida panthers can travel across several protected regions including Big Cypress National Preserve, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Picayune Strand State Forest, Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest and Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, and the Spirit of the Wild and Dinner Island Ranch Wildlife Management Areas. This year saw the inclusion of American Prime as protected panther habitat — a critical piece of undeveloped land along the Caloosahatchee River where panthers have crossed to expand their range northward. While most Florida panthers reside south of Lake Okeechobee, in recent years several males have dispersed northward into central and northeast Florida, and one even traveled back into its historic range in northwest Georgia by using this connection to move out of south Florida.

With such a small population to begin with and serious problems arising due to inbreeding, the FWS also had to look at how to increase the panthers’ numbers before there simply weren’t enough left in the wild to save. In fact, the IUCN Captive Breeding Specialist Group predicted that without some kind of intervention, the Florida panther population would decline by six to 10 percent each year, eventually reaching extinction. The FWS and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission made the bold decision to temporarily introduce eight female pumas from Texas — animals that Florida panthers used to breed with before they became isolated in south Florida — into the Florida panther population in 1995. A recent University of Florida study concluded that without the new genetic material that the Texas pumas provided, the Florida panther population would most likely have fallen below 10 panthers by 2010. Instead, thanks to a genetic restoration program that would not have been possible without the authority of the Endangered Species Act, a much larger, healthier panther population exists today.

Despite being rescued from certain extinction, the Florida panther continues to face numerous threats due to an increasing human population and development in panther habitat. Collisions with vehicles take a terrible toll on panthers — 17 have been killed so far in 2012. And while the greatest threats to the panthers’ survival are destruction, degradation and fragmentation of habitat — something we combat by advocating for additional habitat to be protected and restored — one of the greatest impediments to panther recovery is the lack of human tolerance for living with a large predator. That’s why we have established a multifaceted outreach program that works to counter misinformation about panthers and provide people with practical solutions for living with this beautiful, wild cat so that all residents of Florida, feline and otherwise, can safely coexist.

From Bill Eubanks and Defenders’ Board Member Eric Glitzenstein

An egret stalks through a cypress swamp (Credit: Farrell Grehan, National Geographic Stock)

Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve encompasses one of the nation’s most unique ecosystems, containing majestic strands of cypress domes, dozens of federally protected species, including the highly endangered Florida panther, and a critical hydrological pattern that serves as a filter for water that ends up in the Everglades and as the drinking water for South Florida’s residents. Due to climate change and rapid commercial and residential development in South Florida, the Preserve and its vulnerable resources are subject to increasing pressures, and it is critical that we create safeguards to protect these resources.

The most avoidable threat to panthers, vegetation and hydrology in the Preserve are the adverse impacts of off-road vehicles (ORVs). Prior to 1995, the National Park Service (NPS) did not regulate ORV use in the Preserve, which led to the creation of approximately 23,000 miles of ORV trail where use of these vehicles routinely disturbed soil and plants, flushed panthers and other wildlife from the Preserve, and disrupted water flows that are essential to maintaining an ecological balance in the Preserve and the Everglades.

In 1995, several conservation groups brought a lawsuit challenging that NPS’s failure to regulate ORV use in the Preserve resulted in numerous violations of federal environmental laws. NPS agreed to settle that case and to create an ORV management plan to significantly reduce the extent of ORV use in the Preserve to sustainable levels. In 2000, NPS issued its final ORV plan, which reduced the mileage of ORV trails in the Preserve from 23,000 to only 400 miles. When ORV users sued, claiming it was unlawful to curtail some ORV use, Defenders and other conservation organizations argued that the plan actually helped NPS better comply with federal laws. The court ruled in our favor and upheld the new plan with no more than 400 miles of ORV trails throughtout the Preserve — a sign that the Preserve’s resources could finally return to a more natural state.

In 2007, however, NPS reopened approximately 23 miles of trails in the Bear Island Unit — the most sensitive ecological area in the Preserve, and the area where panthers are most likely to be found. Those trails had been expressly closed by the 2000 ORV management plan, but NPS reopened them in 2007 with no explanation as to why the agency was reversing course. Defenders and other conservation groups brought a new lawsuit challenging the reopening of the trails. During the course of the lawsuit, it became clear that NPS reopened those trails simply because ORV users were urging that they be opened, and regardless of the on-the-ground environmental impacts of that decision.

Off-road vehicle (Credit: Ben Hallert)

Earlier this year, a federal court once again ruled in  Defenders’ favor. It determined that NPS’s trail reopening violated several environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. In particular, the court found that NPS is bound by its ORV management plan, and it cannot change its management direction mid-stream without going through all the necessary environmental reviews to make sure the new course of action will not damage the Preserve’s natural resources.

This outcome is a huge victory for the Preserve and its wildlife because it means that NPS cannot abandon the resource-protective 2000 ORV management plan that Defenders fought for and won in an earlier lawsuit. The 23 miles of illegally-opened ORV trails in a critical area have now been indefinitely closed to ORV use, and the agency will finally have  to grapple with some related questions about how it manages ORV use in ecologically sensitive areas.

As the Big Cypress National Preserve Off-Road Vehicle Advisory Committee (of which  Laurie MacDonald, Director of Florida Programs, is a committee member) continues to meet to make trail recommendations to NPS, these issues are sure to be front and center. In any event, while this case brings another chapter in the Big Cypress saga to a close by granting the Preserve’s resources much-needed protection, there is still much work to do in South Florida as climate change, development and motorized recreation continue to strain the unique resources of this diverse ecosystem.

Bill Eubanks and Eric Glitzenstein are attorneys with Meyer, Glitzenstein & Crystal, a public interest law firm in Washington, DC that has represented Defenders of Wildlife and other environmental groups in litigation over ORV use in the Big Cypress National Preserve for nearly 20 years.

A (live) pileated woodpecker

Post by Elizabeth Fleming, Florida representative for Defenders of Wildlife.

Driving home from a long weekend at my sister’s house on Florida’s east coast back to my place in St. Petersburg (west coast) I witnessed something heart wrenching: I was cruising along the two-lane SR-710 north just over the Martin/Okeechobee line when I saw a bird in the road up ahead next to a road-killed animal – an all-too-frequent site on Florida roadways.

Cars and trucks swerved into the other lane to avoid hitting the bird, and I did the same. I was astounded that the bird didn’t fly off as the cars passed so closely, until I realized that the roadkill was a pileated woodpecker and the bird next to it was its mate! I quickly pulled to the side of the narrow shoulder, chased the live woodpecker off the road, grabbed the dead bird and tossed it about 30 feet from the road.

The experience was heartbreaking. What bond did those two birds share? As little as I cared to touch the dead bird, I wanted to save the mate from meeting the same tragic fate. I hope it realized quickly that its mate was dead and that it moved away from the road to get on with its life.

Sadly, Dan Smith, biology researcher at the University of Central Florida, told me that this happens more often than people may think. “We had three sandhill cranes killed at the same location within minutes of each other on I-4 two weeks ago,” he said. “Mates, siblings or offspring of their fallen companions do not recognize the danger of oncoming vehicles, yet are bound by instinct or biological imperative to investigate what’s wrong with their companions.”

Roads can be deadly for all types of wildlife. Here, a panther casualty in Florida.

SR-710 is a rural road that runs south to southeast from SR-70, from Okeechobee County through Martin County to Palm Beach County. It bisects significant acreages of healthy public conservation lands and is planned to be widened in three different sections in the coming years. Along that road, I’ve seen roadkill of all kinds, including mammals like otters and bobcat, birds like turkeys and hawks, and reptiles like alligators and turtles. These are accidental but tragic losses, and serve a strong reminder that we share our roads not only with other vehicles, but a rich array of wildlife. We should do everything we can keep them safe.

Take Action:

Support safe passage for wildlife. Defenders is working to increase the number of wildlife crossings throughout Florida to ensure both wildlife and people can use our roads safely.

Slow down and watch out for wildlife – reducing your speed will increase your response time to avoid colliding with a crossing animal.  See Defenders’ Top 10 Tips to help you stay safe on the road.