Proceedings of the Seventh Mountain Lion Workshop

FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION STATUS REPORT
MARK LOTZ, Panther Section Biologist, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission,
566 Commercial Blvd., Naples, FL 34104-4709, USA, email: Mark.Lotz@fwc.state.fl.us
E. DARRELL LAND, Panther Section Leader, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission, 566 Commercial Blvd., Naples, FL 34104-4709, USA, email:
Darrell.Land@fwc.state.fl.us
INTRODUCTION
The Florida panther (Puma concolor
coryi) has been classified as endangered by
the state of Florida since 1958 and by the
federal government since 1967. Formerly,
panthers inhabited the southeastern United
States, ranging from southern Florida to
Arkansas and northward to Tennessee and
South Carolina. Loss and fragmentation of
habitat coupled with unregulated killing
over the past two centuries have reduced and
isolated the panther to the point where only
one population exists on approximately
8,810 km 2 of habitat in south Florida (Maehr
1990). The Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission (FWC) and the
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
are the two lead authorities involved in all
aspects of Florida panther recovery and
protection. Other agencies involved in
panther recovery include the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection,
Florida Division of Forestry, National Park
Service, South Florida Water Management
District, as well as numerous nongovernmental
organizations such as Florida
Wildlife Federation, National Wildlife
Federation, The Nature Conservancy, and
the Florida Audubon Society. A recovery
plan for the Florida panther was written in
1981 with revisions in 1987 and 1995 with
the objective of achieving three viable selfsustaining
populations within the historic
range. FWC initiated intensive research
efforts in 1981 and these studies continue
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Proceedings of the Seventh Mountain Lion Workshop
today. By the end of 2002, FWC has
handled 115 panthers for radio-telemetry
studies and marked 142 neonate kittens at
dens. FWC and many collaborators have
published more than 200 papers and reports
detailing panther life history, habitat use,
mortality, dispersal, home range dynamics,
biomedical findings, genetics, population
modeling, and food habits.
Florida panthers are threatened by
demographic instability inherent in small,
geographically isolated populations and
erosion of genetic diversity from restricted
gene flow and inbreeding. Genetic diversity
is the basis for production of fit individuals
as well as providing population elasticity in
order to respond to changing environmental
and habitat conditions. Historically, natural
exchange of genetic material occurred
among the Florida panther population in the
southeastern United States and contiguous
populations of P. c. cougar to the north, P.
c. hippolestes to the northwest and P. c.
stanleyana to the west (Young and Goldman
1946). Genetic exchange between
populations ceased as the coastal plain was
gradually cleared and settled. Florida
panthers steadily declined in abundance and
distribution as a result. Inbreeding increased
when potential breeders could no longer
move among fragmented populations and
the declining population size compounded
demographic and genetic factors. A
population viability analysis was conducted
in 1992, which predicted the extinction of