An effort to save the endangered native Florida panther represents a much different challenge than dealing with exotic animals that roam the southern part of the Sunshine State.
Exotics are plentiful, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission spokesman Darrell Land. Those include pythons, iguanas and other animals kept as pets and then released into the wilds once they became too large. Others have escaped from sanctuaries flooded by storms.
But fundraising efforts are under way to build panther numbers to at least 240. That’s the point at which they can be removed from the federal endangered list.
There now are only about 100 panthers in Florida, Land said at the 45th annual gathering of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association in Punta Gorda.
Florida panthers drew added interest in November 2008 when one was shot and killed by a deer hunter near West Point Lake in LaGrange, Ga. It had traveled an estimated 600 miles from what’s considered normal Florida panther range – an area south of Florida’s Caloosahatchee River.