Florida PantherNet

Would panthers use these forests?

Panthers might use this linear stretch of forest, especially if it is connected to larger blocks of forest.

This tiny circle of forest is unlikely to be used by panthers given its isolation from other forested areas.

Roads, urban and suburban development, and agriculture decrease the amount of habitat available to panthers, fragment expanses of forested habitat preferred by panthers, and disrupt dispersal of young panthers. Panthers can tolerate a certain degree of development as long as corridors connecting large blocks of natural areas remain.

In a study of cougars in the Santa Ana Mountains of southern California, Paul Beier (1996) found that some dispersing cougars successfully used corridors (even those with human activity) to travel between habitat areas. One corridor, the only one linking a small habitat area with a larger one, required cougars to walk under an 8-lane freeway, through an equestrian center, across the Santa Ana River, and along a golf course.

In Florida suitable (and perhaps even better) habitat for panthers does exist outside of southwest Florida, but to date habitat fragmentation appears to have prevented panthers from reestablishing reproducing populations north of the Caloosahatchee River. Several panthers, however, have been documented north of the Caloosahatchee since the early 1970’s. In 1973 working for the World Wildlife Fund, professional cougar hunter Roy McBride and his dogs treed an aged female panther in the Fisheating Creek area. In the mid-1980s Game Commission biologist Jayde Roof conducted sign surveys for panthers at Fisheating Creek as well as at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Collier County. Panther sign was regularly encountered at Fisheating Creek and sporadically encountered at Corkscrew Swamp (Roof and Maehr 1988). In 1988 biologists captured and tracked a male panther (male 24) north of the Caloosahatchee in Glades and Highlands counties, and in 1998 a young male from Big Cypress dispersed north of the Caloosahatchee River, through the Fisheating Creek area of Glades County. Since that time a handful of other radio-collared panthers have been tracked dispersing north of the Caloosahatchee River and several additional uncollared panthers have been killed on highways in central Florida. These have all been males that have a natural tendency for long distance dispersal. So far no females have been documented north of the Caloosahatchee River.

Male 24

Crossing fragmented habitat is very dangerous for panthers. Collisions with vehicles have been a significant cause of panther deaths, although construction of wildlife underpasses along I-75 and SR 29 has decreased these accidents. Female panthers, however, rarely cross major roads or use the underpasses so their habitat is still essentially fragmented by roads even where underpasses have been constructed (Maehr 1990a).

Habitat quality affects use of underpasses. East of state road 29, panthers use certain I-75 underpasses to a lesser extent. Biologist Darrell Land thinks this limited use of some underpasses east of SR 29 is related to the poorer quality habitats to the east that discourage panther use.

Roads also open up areas to human development and activities that may further contribute to habitat loss and to disruption of panthers' normal behavior. A proposed extension of county road 951 in Collier County to Bonita Beach Road in Lee County would run 1 mile west of prime panther habitat and open pristine areas to development (Whitehead 1998).