The Plight of the Panther: Rare footage and conservation of Florida’s elusive big cat

You hardly ever hear cats first - but the eyes, you cannot mistake the eyes. Inquisitive, yet cautious, there she was.

Peering through the vegetation in silence, we locked eyes and stared, wondering what the other was up to. I was kneeling on the trail tying my shoe when I noticed her. Keeping my hands at my feet and agonizingly tolerating the immense swarm of mosquitoes, I quietly changed lenses on my camera. Then ever so slowly, I raised my arms and captured her gaze.

The Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) is an endangered subspecies of puma (also commonly referred to as mountain lions, cougars, and catamounts) ranging throughout the Americas. Although the Florida panther once roamed across the eastern United States, it is now confined to only small fragments of southwestern Florida.

Threatened by habitat loss, increased vehicle traffic, and poaching, these big cats have experienced a fragile existence amidst decades of booming development across south Florida. During the 1990’s, the population was at a troubling twenty-five individuals when pumas from the nearest population in Texas were introduced to reduce inbreeding.

This move by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service succeeded in increasing the numbers and genetic diversity of panthers in Florida. Today, an estimated 100-180 panthers roam the state and national protected lands, but it's an uphill battle. In the last five years (2009-2013), an average of 24 Florida panthers died annually. Of the 137 found dead since the start of 2009, two-thirds have been a result of human conflict, including 87 killed by vehicles and five from poaching. In 2014 alone, 12 of 17 panther deaths have been due to vehicle incidents. While new litters are born every year, human-related fatalities far outnumber natural deaths (as of late July 2014).

One of the most difficult aspects of big cat conservation is ensuring that there are enough suitable and contiguous habitats to sustain a viable population. Without enough sufficient terrain, the population will be insecurely restrained to its current size – constantly at odds with development.

A critical step in moving forward with panther conservation would require greater connectivity of habitats beyond state and federal lands. The largest areas interspersing protected lands are privately owned ranches, which are the focus of a new Payment for Ecological Services proposal by the US Fish & Wildlife Service. “We want to encourage ranchers to work with us,” says Kevin Godsea, Manager of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, “and Payment for Ecosystem Services is the preferred approach.”

The proposed plan would pay landowners for each acre that they will maintain to a standard that would serve as favorable habitat for panthers.

Some farmers have already expressed their concerns for the proposal, to which Godsea articulates, “Right now it’s just a concept. It’s a different methodology that hasn’t been tried out before. We don’t have funding for it yet and details are being worked out to see if it’s a viable option.”

The concern of Florida ranchers does not come as a surprise. Big cats such as pumas, jaguars, lions, and tigers are widely considered a threat to a rancher’s profit wherever livestock and large felines coincide. However, attacks by big cats on cattle are frequently as misidentified as claimed sightings of the cats themselves. The majority of panther reports submitted to the US Fish & Wildlife Service do not contain enough evidence for confirmation, and often end up being misidentified bobcats, house cats, and dogs. Even one claim ended up being of a monkey.

In Florida, coyotes, bears, and even vultures have been known to kill cows. The key to recognizing if it is a panther kill is by finding it fresh.

Godsea points out, “The problem we have in Florida is that panthers cache their prey in nearby woodlands and in the Florida landscape, it’s very hard to find the cache. Cattlemen don’t feed their claves every day, so monitoring and identifying kills becomes difficult.”

Caitlin Jacobs at the University of Florida has been investigating these kills by radio-tagging calves and relocating them by radio telemetry when they go missing. This way, fresh kills can then be more rigorously and reliably investigated. Results from this study will help shed light on the suspected inflation of panther attacks.

As panthers are being encroached by the ever-expanding development across south Florida, these privately owned lands are a critical component in providing the cats with enough room to roam, while also facilitating corridors between larger habitats. The population has a long way to come before it is considered stable.

Mike Owen, Park Biologist at Florida’s Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park notes, “Encounters with Florida panthers are exceptionally rare and recording footage is truly special.” While this rarity is due to the cat’s elusive nature, small population size, and restricted range, newly proposed conservation efforts will hopefully provide a greater range for Florida’s panthers, and maybe more people will be fortunate to experience one of these captivating encounters.