For the second year in a row, the Florida panther is dying from road kills in record numbers.
To conservationists, that’s a clear signal more needs to be done to protect the 100 to 180 cats that remain. But in a state heavily influenced by big developers, big ranchers and the rush to build on the last remaining tracts of open land in the heart of panther country, wildlife managers say the number represents something entirely different: the successful rebound of a cat back from the brink of extinction.
In a meeting Tuesday, state officials will ask to scale back a federal conservation plan that calls for two additional populations in Central Florida long considered critical to the panther’s survival.
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