Attempts to bring back big predators usually encounter great resistance. It took 20 years to return wolves to Yellowstone National Park, over strong opposition from ranchers and many local residents. A plan to reintroduce grizzly bears to Idaho generated so much hostility that Interior Secretary Gale Norton canceled it last year.

And when the federal government restored Mexican wolves to Arizona in 1998, six were shot.

There have been no known Florida panther attacks on people, but the big cat's return to its historic haunts will still face sharp opposition. The Florida Farm Bureau opposes it, for fear the panthers could endanger children or livestock. And Arkansas wildlife officials have already refused to serve on the panther recovery team.

"Getting the public to accept these things would be a pretty monumental effort," said Donny Harris, chief of the wildlife management division of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. "We've had problems with large carnivores in Arkansas, and the public fears and apprehension. We had four African lions released and subsequently shot. For our agency to follow that up with turning other big cats loose, they would say, `Have you lost your minds?'"

A last stand

Known elsewhere as the cougar or mountain lion, the Florida panther has prowled forests in the Southeast for thousands of years. It is one of 20 subspecies of Puma concolor, a highly adaptive cat whose range includes the rain forests of South America, the deserts of the western United States and the mountains of British Columbia.

While the western subspecies are thriving, the eastern panthers died off because of bounty hunting, loss of habitat and a long-ago crash in the population of white-tailed deer. Only a remnant survived, preying on deer, wild hogs, raccoon and other animals in the cypress swamps of South Florida.

Since the 1970s, federal and state agencies have spent millions of dollars to protect the South Florida panthers. They built wildlife underpasses to cut down on roadkill. They released Texas cougars into the range to reduce inbreeding that had led to heart murmurs, reproductive system problems and other physical defects. They bought up land to protect habitat from being turned into subdivisions or citrus groves.

As a result, the panther population has rebounded from a low of about 30 adults to about 80. Threats remain, particularly from the construction of golf courses, houses and strip malls in fast-growing Collier and Lee counties. But even if the South Florida panther population stabilizes, biologists say its small size and geographic concentration will keep it in danger of extinction from epidemics, hurricanes or other causes.

"You won't be able to get recovery without reintroduction," Kasbohm said. "There's not enough habitat in South Florida to have a big enough population."

In seeking panther habitat, biologists are looking for land with heavy forest cover, abundant deer for prey, few roads and few human beings, said Joe Clark, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, in Knoxville, Tenn., who is leading the site assessment project.

Under consideration are sites in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Mississippi.

Clark expects to take his recommendations to the recovery team by the end of the year. Then the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will choose two or three areas and bring them to the public, beginning a lengthy and difficult process of environmental reviews and public hearings.

While they note that Florida panthers have never been known to attack people, biologists refuse to rule out the possibility.

The fear factor

Mountain lions, the panthers' western cousins, have killed 14 people in the past 30 years in the United States and Canada. Attacks have increased in recent years, with the growth of mountain lion populations and the expansion of suburbs into their habitat.

"There certainly are attacks out West," Clark said. "I think if panthers and humans are in close proximity for a long period of time, I think it's inevitable."

"The important thing is to keep it in perspective," he said. "People are hit by trains; lightning can strike. The chances of being attacked by a large carnivore are pretty slim."

A 1991 analysis of mountain lion attacks since 1890 found that the majority of victims were children, that no attacks took place in Florida and that people who fought back usually repelled the attack. The report noted that mountain lions kill far fewer people in the United States than rattlesnakes (an average of 12 deaths a year), bees (40 deaths a year), dogs (18 to 20 deaths a year) or black widow spiders (three deaths a year).

But farmers and ranchers worry panthers will kill their cattle, sheep and other livestock.

"We're adamantly opposed to the reintroduction of the panther," said Dennis Emerson, director of field services for the Florida Farm Bureau. "We're seriously concerned for the safety of children and livestock. And we're concerned that additional land-use restrictions could be placed on private property."

Return of the wolves

Fears of attacks on farm animals dominated the controversy over restoring wolves to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, considered one of the most successful predator reintroduction programs in history. Since the first 31 wolves hit the ground in 1995, the population has grown to more than 500 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Defenders of Wildlife set up a compensation fund for ranchers who lost cattle, sheep or other animals to the wolves.

Although panthers are considered less likely to attack farm animals, federal officials said a similar fund may be set up before they are reintroduced.

Renee Askins, former head of The Wolf Fund, a wolf reintroduction advocacy group, spent years listening to the concerns of ranchers and other residents.

She said the typical rancher was often more receptive to the reintroduction proposal than the Farm Bureau and other organizations that lobbied on their behalf.

"Across the country, people are much more acutely aware of these last vestiges of wild places and how important they are," said Askins, whose book on the wolf campaign, Shadow Mountain, was just published. "People respond to the charismatic megafauna -- bears, panthers and wolves. I think we're a country that responds to symbols, and these large wild predators are very symbolic of wild places."

David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4535.