This blog post is dedicated to my article: The Florida Panthers Hockey Club’s Panther Conservation Night: More Than a Mascot Event helped keep the “Panther” in “Florida Panthers”

This story was the result of roughly a week’s worth of interviews and writing. I am proud and honored to say that a condensed version of the story will be published by The Miami Herald this Friday. I am not sure if it will only be published online, or if it will also be printed in the physical paper. Nevertheless, I am posting it here.

This story, though not directly linked to UF, ties into the University of Florida’s rich history of conservation (which I touched upon in my story on the Bat House and Bat Barns). I hope you enjoy the read!

 

When most people think of the Florida Panthers, they probably envision a hockey team, with increasing talent, from a state too warm to naturally create the ice they play on. But the Florida Panthers Hockey Club also wants you to keep their namesake in mind – the endangered Florida Panther.

In an effort to conserve and raise awareness for the team’s mascot, the Florida Panther, the Florida Panthers Hockey Club held its Second annual Panther Conservation Night on March 10, 2017. The event featured several conservationists that shared information about the endangered cat to fans at the game. Aside from two separate $12,500 grants, the team also donated $5 from every ticket purchased through the group ticket link created specifically for that night’s game, to conservation efforts.

“[The Florida Panthers Hockey Club] have really have gotten behind the mascot so much more than most sports franchises,” said Andy Hill, a Regional Council Member with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). “Most of the time it’s just a name and it doesn’t go much further than that,” he added.

Hill is a big-time hockey fan who just so happened to be involved with the NPCA. After building a relationship with the management side of the team, he expressed the need to have greater awareness of the Florida Panther in South Florida.

“We got the interest going a couple years ago at the tail end of the season, and through the offseason planned out this one day – which sounds kind of crazy, to spend so much time on one event, but in sports management that’s sometimes what it takes,” Hill said. He worked with the team to create what would ultimately become the first Panther Conservation Night.

Hill then reached out to John Adornato, the Senior Regional Director of the NPCA.

“NPCA is really proud, and honored, to be one of the partners with the Florida Panther team to really celebrate [and join] their effort in celebrating the Florida Panther as ‘More Than A Mascot’ – because it is,” Adornato said.

Adornato was excited to be part of the team that helped shape the event, which he saw as an opportunity to help save, “an icon of the Everglades.”

Adornato, through the NPCA, works to protect the Panther by protecting Big Cyprus National Preserve and Everglades National Park. “Big Cyprus National Preserve is sort of ground zero for Florida Panther Habitat. There’s a significant number of them that live there, or roam and feed throughout Big Cyprus National Preserve,” he said.

The 750,000 acres of the preserve, and the 1.5 million acres of Everglades National Park, “provide critical habitat for the Panther,” Adornato added.

Some of the most significant threats to the habitat of the Florida Panther come in the forms of “off-road vehicles and, more importantly, an ever-growing oil and gas drilling threat,” Adornato said.

Adornato said that, “the Collier Family donated a significant amount of the land that eventually created Big Cyprus National Preserve … [but] retained the subsurface mineral rights. So even though the land is protected, underground whatever oil or gas reserves there are, the Collier Family still owns.” This creates a unique situation, because – though the land is protected and managed by the National Parks Service – the Collier Family maintains the right to retrieve those oil and gas reserves.

The company contacted to find and collect the oil and gas reserves proposed scouting “70,000 acres … smack-dab in the middle of the preserve, where there are very few off-road vehicle trails. And there are very few Off-road vehicle trails, because there’s a lot of sensitive wetland and prairie habitat,” Adornato said.

This, “could significantly alter the hydrology,” or circulation of water on or below the preserve’s surface, “of Big Cyprus, [which is] part of what makes it Big Cyprus, but [also] part of what [leads to] the health of the ecosystem, that results in the health of the Florida Panther,” Adornato said.

He also said that, “Big Cyprus Swamp and the Everglades are a unique ecosystem in which the Florida Panther thrives. And so the Panther depends upon the deer, the deer depend upon the forest … and the other wildlife that makeup the Everglades. So with a healthy Everglades, we have a healthy wildlife population which leads to the health of the top predator, The Florida Panther.”

“[But] here is a company, who gets to drive anywhere they want, with their Off-road vehicles, just to do scouting. Then, once they determine where they want to go, they’re going to drive these 18 wheel [seismic testing] trucks into the preserve. And so the impact [would] just [be] astronomical,” Adornato added.

The NPCA is currently partnered with other environmental groups to sue the National Parks Service over their approval of the oil and gas testing in Big Cyprus National Preserve. Adornato said that the National Parks Service has the right to manage how the oil and gas reserves are accessed in order to protect the resource that is Big Cyprus National Preserve, and that they did not utilize that right, our fulfill their responsibility.

Tom Trotta, Board Member and former president of the Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge, feels that, “there are a lot of drawbacks [to drilling and scouting for oil in Panther habitat], and there are … existing laws that they need to maintain. And that’s one of the reason’s that we’re are going to have [another Board Member] independent [from the company] out there that is going to be taking a look to make sure … that’s actually happening.”

Both Adornato and Trotta were happy to have the opportunity to directly engage with fans during Panther Conservation Night, and explain some of the threats the Panther is facing (especially to its habitat).

Trotta and other conservationists (including Ardonato) set up tables at the event, which were spread out inside the stadium on the plaza level on the main floor, from which they answered questions about the Panther before the game.

The Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge’s table featured skulls and pelts (not from Panthers, but from other animals found in the refuge), brochures and pamphlets and an educational board which featured “a lot of photographs of the other wildlife that lives within [Panther habitat], that aren’t widely known and are not as protected as the Florida Panther is,” Trotta said.

“The way I look at it, the reason I’m so involved, is that if we can save the Panther, then we save a lot of other lesser-known animals, and also a way of life,” he added.

For this reason, the Florida Panther is considered an umbrella species (saving it could also result in the conservation of the many less-popular animals beneath it).

Trotta and the Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge work closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife system, which manage two wildlife refuges in South Florida, including the Florida Panther Wildlife Refuge.

“[The Panther refuge], located at State Road 29 and Interstate 75 on the NW side, is 26,500 acres – and it’s in prime Florida Panther habitat, and it’s up against some of the more developed areas, so it acts as a conduit to some of the public lands that are to the North of the Refuge,” Trotta said.

Trotta said that The Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge work mainly to promote the National Wildlife refuges system nationwide, to raise funds to assist the refuge in purchasing important equipment used in conservation and in paying biologists’ salaries and to advocate whenever an issue involving the Panther or the refuge arises.

Trotta said that they often work in the South Florida community to create awareness about the Florida Panther. “At the beginning of the year we have a Florida Panther Festival which is held at the Naples Zoo and Botanical Gardens. And that event is mostly to educate people that live in the area, in Panther habitat. So they can protect their pets and their hobby livestock,” he said.

Over all, Trotta, “was excited that we had a sports team that was that involved in conservation and I thought it was fairly unique. I think I’ve heard it once before in Cincinnati with the Bengal Tigers, but it’s pretty unique among a sports team to conserve their mascot.”

Hill, Regional Council member for the NPCA, said “it’s really kind of interesting: you can compare and contrast [the Panthers Hockey Club and the Florida Panther] with Penn State and the Nittany Lion. Unfortunately, there [aren’t] any Nittany Lions in existence any longer.”

Danielle Jacobs, Florida Panthers Foundation Coordinator, said that The Panthers Foundation, Trotta, Adornato and other conservationists, “had a meeting earlier in November where … we discussed what we wanted our Panther Conservation Night to look like, so everyone collaboratively worked together [to shape the event].”

The conservationists also shared facts about the Panther that were displayed to fans on the scoreboard. “[The Foundation] worked with our game presentation team to give out some … facts in the beginning, [then] there was some trivia [and] some contests with our mascot,” Jacobs said.

“But also we gave some tips – some call-to-action items for Panthers that the community and that the fans can take back: slow down when you’re in Panther territory, keep small children away, we need to build more underpasses, and just ways to protect them in their habitat,” Jacobs added.

Jacobs also said that the foundation worked with Carlton Ward Jr., a Photographer for National Geographic, “to [make] creative and different graphics to promote on social media and on our website. And then we worked with our game presentation team to make it all happen during the game. So all the facts that you saw, all the graphics that were displayed, all the in-game contests that were done, were all promoting Panther awareness.”

“He provided us with awesome pictures [of Florida Panthers in their habitat], so the pictures that we used, he graciously allowed us to use them [during the game] and [on] social media,” she added.

Jacobs said that helping the endangered Florida Panther is one of the four pillars of the foundation’s mission. “It is our mascot, it’s a big part of our team, so we wanted to put together this night just to … give the awareness out to fans,” she said.

“On behalf of the Foundation, we have a Community Champions Program, where non-profit organizations that have to deal with the four pillars of our foundation can apply for up to $25,000. We actually had two applicants – Zoo Miami, and Palm Beach Zoo and Conservation Society that applied for a grant, both to help the Panthers that are actually at their Zoo. So we gave each of them $12,500 for a total of $25,000 so that they can go back and help the Panthers at their organizations,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said that the main goal for the event was, “To give awareness to this endangered species that happens to be our mascot, and south Florida is where most of these endangered species live. It’s in our backyard, so we just wanted to give awareness, show that people what we could do, and just pretty much make people aware of what’s going on in their backyard.”

As for the fans, Jacobs said, “They were very involved in going up to [conservationists] that [had tables] and wanted to get to know some information. They were involved in the in-game contests that we had regarding tips and facts. So, they were great when it came to this night.”

On Monday, March 27 The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission tweeted “Big leap for #Florida #panther conservation: #kittens found north of the Caloosahatchee.” The tweet featured photos taken by a camera trap of a female panther with kittens farther north than the panther had ever been observed.

Jacobs was encouraged by the news, and said “With everyone’s effort – not only for the Panther Conservation Night, but that the Conservationists are doing in the community, it’s definitely helping the cause. …”

Adornato, Senior Regional Director of the NPCA, in reference to the kittens, said via email, “NPCA is excited about the prospect of the Florida panther potentially establishing a second population north of the Caloosahatchee River. It means the protections we have in place are working, and therefore we shouldn’t be reducing any existing protections so as to actually secure that population expansion.”

Trotta, Board Member and former president of the Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge said, “We were very happy today to find that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission had found that Female Panther North of the river – that was several months ago – and we were really happy that she was able to breed so quickly, and we’ve been involved with that too.”

Trotta said that the Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge had been involved in the efforts to put easements on Mr. House’s Ranch in Labelle, Florida, where all the male panthers had crossed the Caloosahatchee River for many years.

“An easement is a promise and a payment from private or/and public funds that the owner of the property, gets to keep his property, but they can’t develop it,” Trotta said. “It gives [the Panthers] a pathway to the North,” he added. And there is some suitable habitat in the vicinity, he said, in places like Babcock Webb Florida Wildlife Management area and Fisheating Creek.

Lauren Simone, Executive Director of the Florida Panther Foundation, said via email, “The Florida panther is more than a mascot to the Florida Panthers Hockey Club, and it is extraordinarily important to our club that we are assisting in the efforts to help the animal thrive and the population increase in Florida.”

When asked about the differences between this year and last year’s events, Simone said, “Last year was the first year of our campaign, ‘#morethanamascot’, and since then, it has grown.  The number of conservationists that we are partnered with has grown, in addition to the exposure that we have had through our media channels. We only hope that this sort of movement and campaign will continue to grow and that the Florida panther will have continued success.”

And people did notice. Hill, a Regional Council Member for the NPCA, said “it seemed to be better and bigger, and more organized. And I think [the] messaging got even better.”

When I asked Adornato, the Senior Regional Director of the NPCA, and Trotta, Board Member and former president of the Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge, about what people can do to help the Florida Panther, they both gave similar responses.

They advised slowing down in Panther zones (which are marked with Panther Crossing signs), become educated on the issues, advocating for the Panther and the National Parks and Refuge the animals reside in and reaching out to state and federal representatives and asking that parks be well-funded and habitats be protected – not just for the Panther, but for all the other species under it.

Simone, Executive Director of the Florida Panther Foundation, described the event nicely when she said, “March 10, Panther Conversation Night, was an extremely important night for the Florida Panthers Hockey Club, and we are proud to be a small part of conservation efforts in South Florida. We hope that from this night and from our other efforts, that our fans and beyond will understand that we are committed to assisting in conservation efforts to help this beautiful animal. We also hope that we were able to share important information to individuals about the plight of the panther, and small tips about what an individual can do to be a part of panther conservation efforts – no matter how small it is.”