Florida Panthers

The Florida Fish Wildlife Conservation Commission is adding to the 2025 panther mortality list with the news that another of the big cats has been killed.The remains of an 11-year-old, female Florida panther (K408) were collected August 29, 2025, next to Jane’s Scenic Memorial Drive in Copeland, Collier County. The suspected cause of death was a vehicle collision.

The remains of a 2-year-old, female Florida panther were found August 28 on Keri Road, 2.5 miles west of Twin Mills Grade in Hendry County.The suspected cause for the 13th panther death in 2025 was vehicle collision.

A pair of Florida panther kittens no more than 4 months old were found dead last weekend along Davis Boulevard in Collier County.State panther experts believed the female kittens, each weighing about 30 pounds, were hit by a vehicle southwest of the Interstate 75 toll booth on Alligator Alley.

State panther biologists are hoping the sometimes cruel fate of nature does not repeat itself this year after they checked on a trio of kittens born to a mother who lost last year’s litter to a hungry black bear. They posted pictures of the baby panthers on Instagram

Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park gains more than 60 newly conserved acres, further connecting the world’s largest subtropical strand swamp.

The Florida Panther Day Festival previously planned for Saturday at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge on state route in South Immokalee had been canceled. Efforts were made successfully to get the event back in place.

As 2024 comes to an end, some journalists are having difficulty keeping the official panther death count from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission accurate. Why is unclear.

When the wildlife corridor was envisioned, subdivisions with 10,000 houses and hundreds of thousands of feet of office space were not planned.

As agriculture gives way to planned developments, many worry the Florida panther is on a path to doom.Environmentalists say planned communities — Kingston in eastern Lee and Bellmar in eastern Collier and both the size of small cities — could hurtle the Florida panther from the Endangered Species List to extinction.

The Florida panthers’ numbers dwindled so quickly over the the early 1900s that hunting them was banned in 1958. In 1967, panthers were the first animal to be put on the federal Endangered Species List, and in 1973 the puma, a big cat relative, was named a Florida protected species.