Panther Habitat Use in Southern Florida

“Although cougars prefer cover (Lindzey, 1987; Belden et al., 1988; Laing, 1988; Pierce and Bleich, 2003), we assumed that a cougar could move relatively short distances without appropriate cover, as studies have found that cougars can travel over unsuitable terrain (Beier, 1995; Logan and Sweanor,…”

“Feasability of translocating panthers into northern Florida.”

“…panthers was defined by a minimum convex polygon containing 46,350 telemetry records for 79 panthers >2 years of age for which >50 telemetry records were available. further combined into 16 habitat classes to reduce effects of inflated Type I error rates on our results (Bingham and Brennan , 2004).”

“(NPS) using methods described previously (Belden et al. 1988; Land et al. 2008; Onorato et al. 2011).”

“Other estimates of the error associated with this particular panther telemetry dataset were derived by Belden et al. (1988), Janis and Clark (2002) and Dees, Clark, and Manen (2001), whose estimates ranged from 77 to 230 m with varying degrees of confidence.”

“The rating system for how females and males evaluate the 22 land cover types within the Land Cover Landscape Image was based on empirical studies of panthers in southern Florida, and on cougars used in the reintroduction feasibility study (Belden et al., 1988; Maehr, 1990; Maehr et al., 1990; Belden and Hagedorn, 1993…”

“…‡3 times per week from 1981 to 2006 across the range of the subspecies in south Florida, USA (Kautz et al. 2006) by biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and National Park Service (NPS) usingmethods described by Belden et al. (1988) and Land et al. (2008).”

“However, aerial telemetry data were collected almost exclusively between the hours of 0700 hours and 1100 hours and habitat selection analyses of these data have been limited by this diurnal bias (Belden et al. 1988, Maehr and Cox 1995, Cox et al. 2006, Kautz et al. 2006).”

“Panthers have repeatedly been shown to select forested habitat either within their home range (thirdorder selection; Belden et al., 1988; Cox et al., 2006; Land et al., 2008) or within a study area (second-order selection; Kautz et al., 2006).”

“2006) by biologists from the FWC and National Park Service (NPS) using methods described by Belden et al. (1988) and Land et al.”

“Beier et al. (2003) found home range size estimates for panthers reported by Belden et al. (1988), Maehr et al. (1991), and Comiskey et al. (2002) to all be reliable; both male (43,500–65,000 hectares) and female (193,000–396,000 hectares) panthers require large home ranges to meet their needs.”

“The importance of upland forest/open prairie edge in determining the breeding density of panthers has been noted by several researchers (Belden et al. 1988, Smith and Bass 1994).”

“Mean estimated telemetry error ranged from 77–230 m (Belden et al. 1988, Dees et al. 2001).”

“Florida panthers occupy large home ranges, often hundreds of square kilometers in size (Belden et al. 1988, Kautz et al. 2006, Land et al. 2008), and habitat fragmentation is a major conservation concern (Meegan and Maehr 2002, Onorato et al. 2010).”

“Extensive forested landscapes are critical to panther survival (Belden et al. 1988, Maehr et al. 1991, Maehr and Cox 1995), and areas preserved for panther conservation may thus encompass the habitats of many of South Florida's other rare species, both animal and plant (Kautz et al. 1993, Cox et…”

“Due to the poor soils (Harlow and Jones 1965), and possibly the late successional stage of woody vegetation (Belden et al. 1988), the forage complex of hammocks and bayheads is generally of low nutritive quality.”

“The earliest studies of Florida panther movement patterns and vegetative use were the keys to understanding the basic ecology of the species in south Florida (Belden et al. 1988; Maehr et al. 1989, 1990, 1991).”

“From the beginning of panther radio telemetry in the early 1980s (Belden et al., 1988), there has been a gradual increase in the number of animals under study.”

“Forest cover has been consistently identified as important to, and selected by, the Florida panther (Belden et al., 1988; Maehr, Land & Roof, 1991; Pearlstine et al., 1995; Maehr, 1997; Cox et al., 2006).”

“…in analyses were collected in a standardized manner from fi xed-wing aircraft by FWC and National Park staff between the hours of 0600–1000, and telemetry error associated with Panther locations has been reported to range from 77–230 m (Belden et al. 1988, Dees et al. 2001, Janis and Clark 2002).”

“Therefore, we established 35 trail-camera sites within the northern Addition Lands region of Big Cypress National Preserve (BCNP; NPS 2010), to determine if we could differentiate individuals in an area known to have a higher Panther density (Belden et al. 1988, McBride et al. 2011).”

“Moreover, Maehr and Cox (1995) and Kerkhoff et al. (2000) fail even to mention the fact that all their telemetry data were taken from morning-only locations.”