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Budget Cuts End Florida Panther Tracking Program

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The Associated Press

Published: April 6, 2009

KEY WEST - Budget woes are forcing state wildlife officials to cut a program that tracks endangered Florida panthers with GPS-equipped collars.

Darrell Land of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's panther team says tracking has been suspended across South Florida, including in the Everglades, Big Cypress Swamp and Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve.

Since the 1980s, the team collared panthers to track their health and population. Land says sending a half-dozen team members on a tracking mission costs too much.

Wildlife officials also say the costly collars have mostly stopped working.

Conservationists say the tracking program provided useful information about panther habitat.

Panthers were placed on the endangered species list in 1967.

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