Ranchers could be key to restoring Florida's growing panther population.
A University of Florida
study on panther depredation on livestock says farmers are more
concerned about coyotes than they are big cats, and most of the farmers
who responded are in favor of preserving the Sunshine State's official
animal.
"Rancher acceptance and support of panther recovery is
critical its success because cattle ranches in Florida typically support
a mosaic of different natural land cover types that provide suitable
habitat for panthers and other wildlife," the UF report reads.
The
state has been working on a program to compensate ranchers for cattle
lost to panthers, and the study says compensating farmers for the amount
of panther habitat they maintain could be the most effective way to
approach the issue.
This latest survey was conducted by Caitlin
Jacobs with the university's Department of Wildlife Ecology and
Conservation and Martin Main with UF's Florida Sea Grant.
Incentivisation,
the study says, could be the best way to protect both panthers and
livestock. This type of compensation program would help offset livestock
lost to panthers and encourage property owners to maintain panther
habitat, which includes some agriculture lands.
The
study was conducted to evaluate the perceived risk of panthers and
other predators while also measuring the support for panther recovery.
Internet surveys were sent to more than 1,900 Florida cattle ranchers,
with 90 ranchers starting the survey and 70 completing it. Eight of
those respondents said they were against Florida panther conservation;
twenty-five said they were neither for or against conservation; and 43
said they supported or strongly support saving Florida's panthers.
The
numbers translate into 56 percent of farmers who responded being in
favor of panther protection. That's much less importance, the study
says, than the general public places on big cat conservation (91
percent).
Ranchers who responded said they were no more concerned
about panthers than they are alligators, vultures, bobcats and black
bears.
The survey also asked farmers north of the Caloosahatchee
River if they'd be concerned about biologists releasing females in that
area of the state. Males readily travel north of the river, but females
have been reluctant to move into central and north Florida.
The
lack of females prevents panthers from breeding in those areas and
expanding their current range, which is currently centered around The Big Cypress area.
The
panther population was thought to consists of a few dozen individuals
in the 1980s and '90s. The state introduced female Texas cougars in the
late '90s as a way to increase the genetic variation of the Florida
panther, which crossbred with the cougars hundreds of years ago as their
range was connected across the Southeastern United States.
-- Compiled by Chad Gillis
source
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