Florida Panther is exposed to two -staddro -spread and increased traffic

Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Florida – – – In January, an endangered Florida Panther, who is known as UCFP479, was the first to die this year in a vehicle collision along a rural road of southwestern Florida.

The male panther, almost 2 years old, will not be the last.

In 2024, 36 Panther deaths were recorded by state wildlife officials, which was the most since 2016. The majority of these deaths are the result of collisions with vehicles, including one that was hit by a train, as state statistics show.

An estimated 120 to 230 adult Florida -Panther lives in the wild southwestern corner of the state, where they are confronted with a booming human population and the accompanying development.

The Florida Panther, which is similar, but smaller than the western Puma or the mountain lions, once roamed a large part of the southeastern US hunting and habitat loss and has limited the numbers of the species to a shrinking space of around 2 million acres (809,000 hectares).

In fact, in the counties Eastern Collier and Lee in the counties Eastern Collier and Lee there are numerous major projects in progress that create tens of thousands of houses and the traffic associated with them.

“We are now at a critical time,” said Michael Mcgrath from Sierra Club, who recently led a tour of Pantherland for journalists and activists. “We will see more and more deaths. Spread kills. “

Environmental groups have run a tough struggle to continue part of the development and promise to continue these efforts.

“You can see that all this country is a primary habitat for Panther,” said Amber Crooks, Manager for Environmental Policy at The Conservancy of Southwest Florida. “We have to fight until this last decision.”

The Florida Panther is the only established population of Pumas east of the Mississippi River. They have been classified as endangered since 1967. In 1989, in 1989, in addition to the Big Cypress National Preserve west of the Everglades, a 26,600 hectare panther approval location was founded.

In 1981 the state began to record Panthers to check their health, to give vaccines, to take genetic samples and to fit them with radio collar to pursue them.

The Panther population in the nineties fell to around 50 animals, partly due to the inbreeding, which caused numerous health problems. As a result, officials import eight female Texas pumas to Florida to breed with men, increase the Panther numbers and improve their genetic diversity. The descendants are considered Florida -Panthers and are protected according to the US fish and wildlife service according to the law on endangered species.

Florida Panthers are similar to the Cougars and Pumas found in the American west, with beige or brown fur and white markings underneath. They eat different types of prey, especially deer and raccoons.

Men tend to search more than women in search of territory and are sometimes discovered near the Orlando area. A man was shot by a hunter in Georgia in 2008, say wildlife officers. Because men are more striped, they tend to be hit by vehicles.

Panthers are exposed to the risk of a disease, including a form of cat -like leukemia that was transmitted to them by domestic cats. Bobcats are also susceptible to the disease.

A outbreak of leukemia from 2002 killed at least five panthers, say the Bundeslife officials.

Another aspiring disease seems to cause weakness in the back legs of Panthers and Bobcats, many of which were restless on trail video cameras.

“We encourage the public to continue to submit footage and pictures of wild animals that seem to have problems with their back legs,” said the Florida Wildlife Commission in an online contribution.

Some are killed by fighting, especially by men.