U.S. biologist says agency misrepresents panther data
By Associated Press
Published May 5, 2004
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist is accusing the agency of putting developers' needs ahead of the endangered cats.
Andrew C. Eller Jr., a Fish and Wildlife biologist for 17 years, filed a formal complaint Monday alleging the agency is knowingly using flawed science in key decisions affecting how much undeveloped land is set aside for the panthers.
"Panther literature considered "best available science' by the USFWS contains unsupported assumptions, uses inappropriate analytical methods and selectively uses data to support conclusions," Eller said in his complaint.
He said agency figures are being inflated and habitat needs minimized. For example, daytime and nightly habitat use patterns are wrongly equated and all panthers are falsely assumed to be breeding adults to show a higher reproduction rate, he said.
Eller said the agency should conclude that the animal's existence is in jeopardy, which could require stricter protections against development.
We're losing habitat to urban development and agricultural land conversion quicker than it can be protected," Eller, who lives in Vero Beach, told the Associated Press.
Florida panthers have been considered endangered since 1967. The subspecies of puma, related to cougars and mountain lions, once prowled Texas, Louisiana and the lower Mississippi valley but now are confined mostly to South Florida, within Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades.
Officials put the current Florida panther population at 80 to 100, up from 30 two decades ago.
Eller's complaint was filed under the federal Data Quality Act of 2000, which requires agencies to use objective information in decisionmaking. Fish and Wildlife officials have 60 days to respond.
State wildlife biologists share Eller's concerns about development but express more hope for Florida panthers' future, according to Henry Cabbage, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "I would agree that development is taking up Florida panther habitat," he said. However, "We're buying habitats, we're doing research. What we're doing is working."
