In the article “Panther at the Crossroads” by Tristram Korten, the author is making the claim that big cats in Florida are being driven into extinction by human encroachment into their territory and we need to do more to protect them. For support, the author points to the record number of panther deaths on Florida roadways within panther country, a big cat that is currently thought to be on the brink of extinction. Another big cat, the Eastern cougar, is thought to already be extinct. He also points to the numbers of panthers currently considered to live in the wild and compares it to how many of that number are found dead on the roadways. Compared to the numbers of big cats that used to roam the American wildlands and how those numbers have changed with the growth of new subdivisions and the restriction of rangeland, Korten makes the case that humans are dramatically impacting the panther populations in a negative way.
Korten connects this data to his claim by demonstrating that we need to construct animal-friendly over and underpasses so panthers can safely cross the roadways within their own territory, opening up more rangeland for them to prowl which is an important part of their lifestyle that can’t be easily changed. We also need to identify and protect land adjacent to existing panther reserves to open up greater opportunity for the species to thrive. He backs this warrant with information about the Florida Wildlife Corridor initiative which aims to connect protected land and ranchland to create a continuous corridor for wildlife to use to expand their territory and breed. He brings attention to a rebuttal in pointing out that not all environmental groups feel restrictions on development are necessary, instead looking for a compromise. A qualifier in the article is that there is already a lawsuit in progress to require new habitat designated for panthers and that bringing more cars into panther habitats is only going to kill more panthers.
- Korten, Tristram. “Panther at the Crossroads.” Sierra Club. (Sept./Oct. 2011). Web.
