Discrediting a Decade of Panther Science: Implications of the Scientific Review Team Report

Kostyack, John; Hill, Karen

The Florida panther is one of the most endangered mammals in the U.S., with less than 100 individuals living in the wild in south Florida. Population numbers have increased somewhat in recent years, thanks to the successfu11 translocation of a related subspecies, the Texas cougar, into Florida to restore genetic diversity. But the primary threat to the survival of the panther is habitat loss and fragmentation, and this threat appears to be growing as development in southwest Florida sprawls eastward from the Gulf Coast. The Florida panther has the good fortune of being protected by the Endangered Species Act, one of the crown jewels of U.S. environmental law. The ESA provides a host of strong measures to help protect the habitat of the panther and to promote panther recovery. It mandates the use of the best available science, and it provides citizens' groups with the tools to enforce the law when agencies ignore the science. This paper discusses the federal government's use of unsound science in its decisions concerning the Florida panther, which has now been conclusively shown in the December 2003 report by the government-commissioned Scientific Review Team. This paper also documents the extensive habitat loss that has resulted from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) failure to use sound science science that could be found in its own recovery planning documents - for nearly a decade. It asks some tough questions, such as: how could an agency charged with protecting endangered wildlife go so far astray?