Catching a glimpse of the elusive Florida panther
A male panther leaps over a creek at Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Florida. The rarely seen cats, which number only around 200, are reclaiming territory north of the Everglades, but their habitat is threatened by encroaching suburban sprawl. Photo courtesy Carlton Ward, Jr./National Geographic. Used with permission.
Aggressive hunting and unchecked development cut the population of the endangered Florida panther to fewer than 30 in the 1970s but thanks to conservation efforts, the population is now approximately 200, mainly in a stretch of contiguous land south of the Caloosahatchee River.
What s new: A stunning photo essay by Carlton Ward, Jr. for National Geographic documents the return of the elusive cat.
Longreads Best of 2020: Science and Nature
All Best of Longreads illustrations by Kjell Reigstad.
All through December, we’re featuring Longreads’ Best of 2020. We’ve searched through our archives to find the science and nature stories that take you into ancient forests, through dark swamps, to the bottom of the sea, and right up into the stars.
The New York Times Magazine)
Old-growth forests in North America are like something out of a fairytale huge trees, luminescent with moss, with boughs arching above your head, and “gnarled roots” beneath your feet, “dicing in and out of the soil like sea serpents.” And, as Ferris Jabr discovers in this story, the magic of these trees goes beyond what we see with intricate fungal networks weaving them together into an inclusive community that links “nearly every tree in a forest even trees of different species.” This is a fascinating piece that shows you these giant sentinels are more than you expect more than j