Florida Panthers Animal Population

The remaining population was seriously inbred.

Florida panthers animal population. Today the primary threats to the remaining panther population are habitat loss fragmentation and degradation. The panther population size within the occupied breeding range south of caloosahatchee river has increased from approximately 20 in the early 1970s to an upper bound of approximately 230 adult and. Today the panther is presently restricted to less than five percent of its historic range in a single breeding population in southern florida. Males can weigh up to 73 kg 161 lb and live within a range that includes the big cypress national preserve everglades national park the florida panther national wildlife refuge picayune strand state forest rural.

Florida panthers were heavily hunted after 1832 when a bounty on panthers was created. Florida panther member of a population of large new world cats of the species puma concolor family felidae confined to a small isolated and inbred group in southern florida and protected by the u s. Endangered species act 1973. Due primarily to hunting and habitat fragmentation florida panthers almost died out by the 1970s when there were fewer than 20 left.

Florida panthers are a subspecies of puma concolor a big cat with more than 80 common names including the puma cougar or mountain lion. In south florida it lives in pinelands tropical hardwood hammocks and mixed freshwater swamp forests. The predators once stalked landscapes from canada to.