Defenders' Experts
Florida Panthers: In the Field
We work with diverse partners on habitat protection, land use planning, transportation planning and road retrofitting, watch dogging the agencies, public awareness and education, and mobilizing citizens to take action, including training a volunteer team to provide information to the public and assist individuals with implementing practices that prevent conflicts between property owners and panthers.
Public Education and Outreach
An important component of increasing knowledge about panthers includes education programs in schools, on the Internet, and in outdoor recreation areas. However, more can be done to work with landowners, agriculture, industry, and local communities especially that are in or near panther habitat.
Defenders of Wildlife has years of experience dealing with public perceptions of carnivores -- including reintroduction of black-footed ferret and wolf populations, and black bear and panther conservation efforts. Defenders is working with other groups to increase understanding of panther behavior and spread the word on learning how to live responsibly with panthers.
Defenders is part of a Fish and Wildlife sponsored task force of agencies and organizations working collaboratively to develop and implement education and outreach programs that will be an essential and integral component of panther conservation and recovery. We worked together to produce “A guide to living with Florida panthers,” 2007 and two town hall meetings on Living Safely with the Florida Panther. Defenders spoke at both meetings about our incentive programs to help people live responsibly with wildlife.
Defenders has hosted three Panther Track and Sign Identification Workshops to train citizen scientists to provide public education and outreach and help respond to reports of panther sightings. The participants, the Panther Citizens Assistance Taskforce (PCAT) have developed tracking kits and a tracking sheet, advised on the creation of a panther sign identification guide, and become involved with Defenders’ panther conservation work.
In 2006 the National Park Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission asked Defenders for assistance in Collier County, a location where several panther attacks on pets and small livestock had taken place. Defenders and our PCAT volunteers are helping homeowners take responsibility for protecting their pets and livestock against depredation.
Preventing Unnecessary Relocations
In 2006, Defenders was instrumental in preventing the relocation of a mother Florida panther and her two kittens from their home range in Big Cypress National Preserve. The Interior Department had been under pressure to move the animals that were near an environmental education center in the preserve. Defenders opposed the move because none of the panthers had exhibited threatening behavior, they were attracted to the center by deer that congregate in the area, and relocation could have endangered their lives and set a bad policy precedent for moving panthers in the future. As a result of our pressure, the National Park Service built a deer-proof fence around the center that should keep people and panthers safe.
Florida Panther Habitat Banking Workshop
In 2006 Defenders held the first of its kind Florida Panther Habitat Banking Workshop. Participants from state and county transportation agencies, water management districts, federal and state natural resource agencies, private mitigation banks and non-government conservation organizations participated in the invitation-only meeting to discuss opportunities to establish Florida panther habitat banks, particularly for offsetting transportation impacts.
Defenders is encouraging the participants to work together toward a strategy to coordinate and consolidate mitigation actions into more ecologically effective investments for Florida panther conservation.
In 2006, Defenders staff and PCAT volunteers inspected sites in the region where proactive intervention is needed to prevent human-panther conflict situations. Recognizing Defenders’ leadership in preventing and responding to conflict situations, the National Park Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission asked us for assistance. Several panthers attacks on pets and small livestock have taken place in the last few years and to help homeowners take responsibility for protecting their pets and livestock against depredation, Defenders and our PCAT volunteers are undertaking demonstration projects and to assist homeowners in rural Collier County.
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