NAPLES, Fla. — On Thursday, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced the death of 19th panther in the state this year. The panther was hit by a vehicle near mile marker 103 on I-75 in Collier County. That makes for 3 deaths in the last 10 days between Collier and Lee Counties.
“Unfortunately, it seems to be same story year after year,” said Jason Totoiu, a senior attorney with the Center of Biological Diversity.
With this week's panther death, 15 of 19 panther deaths this year have come from vehicle strikes, while another came after a panther was hit by a train. Totoiu, a lifelong Florida resident, says these strikes are directly related to the growth we have seen in Southwest Florida.
“Some of the largest developments at are approved; when they are built out, upon build out they add thousands of vehicle trips per day,” said Totoiu “So, when you have that much volume on the roadways it just increases the risk to this species.”
This development is also decreasing the amount habitat available for panthers to roam, especially with a male panther needing a nearly 200 square miles of territory live.
“And in some places, particularly in Collier and Lee Counties, in Southwest Florida, we are starting to see corridors that naturally existed that starting to develop these pinch points or bottlenecks,” said Totoiu.
Those pinch points are where Totoiu says it is more likely for panthers to be killed. He also says there are things that can help in these areas, like wildlife crossings.
“Particularly when they are paired with things like directional fencing, reduced speed limits, and other such controls and mechanisms on the roadways to reduce moralities, but we can’t just rely on crossing alone,” said Totoiu.
Totoiu says if we really are going to have any hope for the panthers’ recovery, we need to find ways to get to species out of South Florida and north of the Caloosahatchee. One of the ways he suggests is translocating female panthers north of the river, as it seems to be bottleneck for the species.
“It’s important with a wild range of this species to have females north so males can disperse north and breed,” said Totoiu.
Now despite these recent panther deaths, FWC has record a new litter of panthers, 1 male and 2 females, on earlier this month in the Okaloachoochee Slough State Forest. Give hope still for the recovery of the species.
