Only approximately 60 adults now survive in the wild. It is integral to protecting this country's wildlife heritage. Today, the Florida panther is the most endangered of all North America's remaining cats, with only a handful of individuals restricted to a small, rapidly shrinking corner of southwest Florida. Panthers, a subspecies of cougar, were once quite numerous across the Southeast, ranging from east Texas through Mississippi and Georgia to the Atlantic, and north to Tennessee. These cats are all that remain of native cougars east of the Mississippi.
Habitat destruction poses the most significant threat to the Florida panther's survival.
Without aggressive measures to conserve this cat's habitat and protect the few remaining individuals, this rare cat will disappear forever. In the long term, the Florida panther's survival will depend on the cat's ability to expand into additional parts of its historic range. Residential and commercial development, due to Florida's rapidly expanding human population, increasingly encroaches on the panther's dwindling habitat. Development abuts the primary protected public lands that panthers depend upon. Roughly half of the cat's remaining habitat is privately owned, complicating efforts to protect panthers.