“Huge Success”: This Panther Population Increased Ten-Fold!

The Florida panther has made a major recovery in the United States, jumping from what was once about 20 felines to over 200 today!

In 1995, eight female pumas were brought from West Texas to save the Florida panthers’ population suffering from inbreeding which hampered their ability to reproduce. And now, efforts continue to be made to reconnect the big cat’s territory to facilitate its movements and reproduction activity.

“What encourages me is that the panther recovery story is a huge success story,” says Brian Kelly, a panther biologist for the state of Florida. “As opposed to large carnivore conservation in the rest of the world, where it’s very often a doom and gloom story of populations decreasing, populations on the verge of extinction, the panther is the opposite of that. The panther has been a huge success.”

In the Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area, the current northern frontier of the panther breeding range, the first female in 43 years has been spotted, and there could be between 10 and 25 more felines. There is a project of developing 45,000 acres of territory north of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge to keep the habitat connected and therefore, facilitate the panthers’ migration.