Florida Puma Endangerment
The Florida Panther was first listed as an endangered species in 1976.
At first, hunting largely annihilated the Florida Panther’s population until they were placed on the endangered species list and hunting was made illegal. However, human hands are still at fault for the decline and endangerment of this species. Today, the Florida Panther’s main threats are habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation and human developments such as roads and highways.
In addition, European Colonization caused the Florida Panther’s population to decline and become geographically isolated, as colonizers began to infiltrate their lands. With the lack of gene flow that once helped this Panther thrive, the isolation combined with the lack of gene flow the Florida Panther population began to experience increased levels of inbreeding, negatively impacting their genetic variation and overall fitness, thus decreasing their survival rate.
Our need to support the growing human population with roads and new developments is one of the major causes leading towards the extinction of several different species.
Recovery Plan
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has identified the recovery strategy for the Florida Panther as “maintain[ing], restor[ing], and expand[ing]” the panther population and its habitat from south Florida into south-central Florida, as well as reintroducing two viable populations within the historic range outside of south and central Florida. This means that the Florida Panther needs to be reintroduced and repopulated in two of the areas they had once resided in, in the past. The areas where they could be reintroduced to, hopefully help replenish their population. In addition, the third aspect of the recovery plan is to educate and inform the public about how they can help and what they can do to aid in the Florida Panther’s recovery. The primary goal of the recovery strategies listed above is to replenish and re-spread the Florida Panther’s population to such a state that where it would be listed as threatened instead of endangered and then, eventually, removed from the Federal list of endangered and threatened species once its population has gotten large enough to sustain itself without the negative or positive interferences from humans.