Today, Florida panthers are the only subspecies of cougar left East of the Mississippi River. Florida panthers are currently part of the national endangered species list with only an estimated 30-80 wild panthers still in existence. In the late 1800s, a $5 bounty was placed on the Florida panther because they were believed to be a danger to the growing livestock industry in Florida. Consequently, the panthers were slaughtered almost to the point of elimination. Then in the 1930s and 1940s, large clearings of the wilderness began to make room for human development, but this clearing wiped out the Florida panthers' habitats. The panthers were then pushed to the Everglades, which is where the last group of wild panthers currently reside. Another problem is defragmentation, the building of roads through the habitats of panthers.…show more content… Male panthers attempt to cross the roads to find mates and prey, but instead, many are killed by vehicles. Defragmentation, human development of the Florida panther's habitat and the bounty placed on the panthers are unethical decisions that led to the endangerment of the Florida panthers. Aldo Leopold once described land ethics by saying, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” These unethical decisions did not intend to preserve the biotic community. Instead, the human population responsible for these decisions acted in favor of their own needs and ignored the needs of nature. The decisions to place a bounty on the Florida cougars, build roads through habitats, and demolish their habitats has managed to nearly eradicate a vital part of the Floridian
