IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Beier, P.; Vaughn, M.R.; Conroy, M.J.; Quigley, H. | |
| An Analysis of Scientific Literature Related to the Florida Panther | |
| 2003 Full Book | |
We critically reviewed scientific literature on Florida panthers to identify strengths and weaknesses of existing research, and to recommend future analyses and research priorities. A quartercentury of research strongly supports many published conclusions, including that forests are important as daytime rest sites of panthers, that white-tailed deer and feral hogs are the most important panther prey, that the most important threats to panther persistence include limited habitat area and continued habitat loss and fragmentation, and that recovery of the panther depends most critically on establishing additional populations outside of south Florida. For about a century, loss of fitness due to erosion of genetic material was also a serious threat to the panther population. The genetic outcrossing program begun in 1995 seems to have remedied this problem for now; we recommend rigorously documenting this apparent success as a service to conservation science. Research on juvenile dispersal by Florida panthers ranks among the most detailed for any large carnivore species. Although panther numbers have been estimated only once and only in one study area, we believe that obtaining a rigorous estimate of population size would drain resources from more important research needs. On the other hand, we also found poorly supported inferences. The conclusions that panthers prefer large forest patches and are reluctant to travel from forests are unreliable because the analyses excluded (without mention or rationale) a large fraction of the available data, ignored errors inherent in telemetry data, and did not rigorously compare used habitats to habitats available to the radio-tagged panthers. Reanalysis of existing data can address most issues related to habitat use. The conclusion that Everglades National Park and most of Big Cypress National Preserve are poor habitat for panthers is not scientifically supported; future performance of panthers in these areas will resolve this issue. Population Viability Analyses (PVA) conducted to date have used relatively inflexible software, and the most recent PVA used an unwarranted estimate of 80% annual survival of newborn panthers. We recommend analysis of existing data to estimate vital rates and variation in those rates. Finally, some important aspects of research have received insufficient attention in recent years. Despite some early and meritorious experimental work on panther reintroduction, during the last decade progress has lagged on ecological and social research needed to reintroduce panthers outside of south Florida. Biomedical data have apparently been collected, but have not yet been analyzed to determine if mercury prevalence, and panther condition and reproduction, have continued to follow trends suggested a decade ago. To guide the re-analysis of existing data on contentious issues (such as habitat preference), we recommend that stakeholders develop research protocols in a workshop setting. To address the longer-term issues of future research and monitoring, the Scientific Review Team recommends the creation of a Scientific Steering Committee that would be encouraged to communicate directly with the public, and to which researchers, agency employees, and other stakeholders would have direct access. As an appendix to this report, we provide an annotated bibliography of literature on the Florida panther. |
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