Those aren't original Florida panthers - they're much larger Texas cats brought here by sentimentalist assholes and out of state Ivy League leftists to enrich enviro NGOs and grab land rights. Worse boondoggle than the wolf "reintroductions" out west.
They're encroaching on our habitat - not the other way around - and should be exterminated if we're serious about our natural fauna.
The regulated, scientific program of importation/breeding of the more numerous mountain lions with the sub-species in Florida was going on in 1993-it was not like it was yesterday or last year. It was done to save the Florida sub-species of mountain lion from extinction because incredibly stupid people had exterminated nearly all of them from the Everglades. It was also done in other states for the same reason at the same time. It wasn’t done by “leftists” just to annoy people. They are interbred with the Florida panther now to the point where they ARE part of your natural fauna, managed by your state, just like all the other native wild animals...
If you really want to get rid of an imported, ecosystem damaging animal, you should go after all the pet pythons released into the Everglades by their un-regulated, un-scientific owners over the last few decades-they have not interbred with native snakes-my cousin in Florida says they are encroaching on neighborhoods and decimating the native wildlife at an alarming rate. And I really do want a pair of python boots...