For a lot of people, 2016 was a bad year: Brexit happened, so did Harambe, and who can forget when clowns took over the country?
It turns out Florida’s iconic animals were not spared from the destruction this year, but what’s worse is that they have an uncertain future ahead of them.
In 2016, a record 34 panthers were killed by vehicle collisions, up four deaths from last year’s record number, and a record 104 manatees were killed by boats, an increase from the previous record of 97 deaths by boat strikes set in 2009.
Both animals have a long history of conservation within the state and both are on the endangered species list. After the Florida panther population hit a low of about 30 to 40 panthers in South Florida in the mid-1990s, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission introduced Texan cougars–in the same species–to the population and numbers grew. Now they estimate there are between 100-180 panthers in the state–and the record death numbers confirm that.
“It’s a bad way to confirm the fact that we do have more panthers,” Florida Fish and Wildlife’s panther team leader Darrell Land said. “We’d prefer to have a less lethal way to do that. We are trying to prevent future collisions, but we don’t think that these losses are contributing right now to a decline in panther numbers.”
As for the manatees, Florida Fish and Wildlife scientists say their numbers are significant insofar as they show that the death numbers need to be monitored over time.
“”The significance is that the watercraft mortalities are consistent over the years and are a consistent threat to manatees,” said Martine deWit, the director of the state Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab. “Unless the number goes down dramatically, it is something that needs to be monitored and paid attention to in management actions and law enforcement.”
Now, how does the future look for these animals? Here are the two initiatives that call into question the way these animals will live in the coming years:
A) Advancing development in Collier County that could threaten more than 150,000 acres of land currently home to 10 federally listed and six state endangered species, including the panther.
When would this happen? Unclear. Landowners applied for an incidental take permit that would allow them to build on the land as early as 2015, but U.S. Fish and Wildlife–a federal agency–is still determining the application’s status.
Still, it seems unlikely that they will reject. From 2010 through 2016, the agency’s South Florida Ecological Services Office issued 17 incidental take permits, and no applications were rejected, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokesman.
B) Possible downlisting of the manatee from endangered to threatened species
When would this happen? The decision is slated to happen early this year. U.S. Fish and Wildlife had a public comment period beginning Jan. 2016, which was largely met with opposition. Now they debate. A spokesman said its “in its final stages of being reviewed.”
Will 2017 better serve these iconic Florida animals? Only time will tell.