Seminole Mine Expansion in Panther Habitat Clears Hurdle

Sun Sentinel (David Fleshler)

A plan by the Seminole tribe to expand a limestone mine in northwestern Broward County would destroy habitat of the Florida panther, but not enough to cause the endangered cats significant harm, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.

The tribe has applied for federal permission to destroy 205 acres of wetlands on its reservation to obtain material for improving Snake Road, a notoriously dangerous, winding two-lane highway that runs north from Interstate 75 to the reservation.

The Cat Behind the OS: Meet the Real Mountain Lion

Wired Magazine (Brandon Keim)

It’s an oddity of consumer culture that nature is appropriated with little thought of the symbols being used. If Apple had named its latest operating system update after, say, the English longbow, the internet would be flush with stories about the Battle of Agincourt — yet barely a mention is made of actual mountain lions.

This just isn’t right. Mountain lions, or Puma concolor, aren’t just a branding device. They’re a reality, an evolutionary sculpture, an exquisite creature meriting the basic acknowledgement given the average Creative Commons copylefter.

“They’re the most successful land animal in the western hemisphere. They seem from an evolutionary standpoint to adapt to almost any situation, whether it’s the Amazon rainforest or the alpine habitats of the northern Rocky Mountains,” said Howard Quigley, director of the Teton Cougar Project at conservation group Panthera. “They must be doing something right.”

In that spirit, Wired presents some of the latest scientific developments in mountain lion research.

Court Rules Against Environmental Groups Over Panther ‘Critical Habitat’

Naples News

Environmental groups have lost another round in their fight with federal wildlife officials over how to protect habitat for the endangered Florida panther.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not have to designate so-called “critical habitat” for the panther because the wild cat was listed as an endangered species in 1967, before critical habitat provisions were added to the federal Endangered Species Act.