WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fails to adequately protect the endangered Florida panther because it uses flawed science, one of the agency's own biologists said Tuesday.

Wildlife specialist Andrew Eller Jr. and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility charged in a formal complaint that the agency has used "data manipulation" to underestimate the creature's habitat needs.

The practice favors developers over the rare cats, which have been formally classified as endangered since 1967 and may be down to as few as 70 in the wild, according to PEER officials.

Eller and PEER filed the complaint with the Fish and Wildlife Service under the federal Data Quality Act, a new law originally meant to give businesses a way to challenge government regulations.

Eller, a 17-year Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, said agency officials had conducted a "charade" in which they pretended to protect the panther and its dwindling Everglades habitat.

The complaint said the agency over-counts panthers, overestimates their reproduction rate and uses a narrow definition of their habitat that underestimates the amount of territory they need to roam.

The Fish and Wildlife Service did not respond to requests for comment.