15th panther killed on Florida roadways this year, breaking previous records
10/10/2006 00:00:00 September 2007. It has been confirmed that the 15th Florida panther this year was killed on a Florida road, beating last year’s record of 11. The panther was a two-year-old male discovered on I-75 which runs through Big Cypress National Preserve and along the Florida National Panther Refuge.‘Roads and development have destroyed a great deal of panther habitat and could spell the end for the Florida panther. The toll that vehicle collisions are taking on the panther’s population is a serious obstacle to their recovery, and the roads and vehicles themselves are inhibiting the panther’s efforts to expand its range,’ said Elizabeth Fleming, Florida representative for Defenders of Wildlife.
There are fewer than 100 panthers in Florida, up from a low of 20 - 30 individuals 20 years ago. This number is still dangerously low and vehicle strikes are a major cause of death for the panther. Since 1972, 110 panthers have been killed on Florida roads, with 70 of those deaths occurring in the last seven years.
Fleming believes that this dramatic upswing is a result of an increasing panther population combined with the loss, degradation and fragmentation of its habitat, and increasing human disturbance. ‘We’ve confined panthers to just five percent of where they once roamed in the south-eastern U.S. and now they are dying on our roads as they
