Another Florida panther killed by vehicle, car-related death toll jumps

The remains of a 3-year-old male panther were found on a rural road
Monday.

The endangered species was struck and killed by a car on a road west of LaBelle in Hendry County, reports the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In all of 2019, there were 27 reported Florida panther deaths, 23 of which were caused by car strikes. So far this year, the death toll is off to a discouraging start. Of the nine panther deaths logged by FWC, eight were killed by cars.

In an effort to protect the remaining roughly 230 panthers in the wild, mainly located in a small region of Florida along the Gulf Coast, conservation groups filed a lawsuit in January against state and federal agencies over road-widening projects in that very same critical habitat.

Stay on top of Orlando news and views. Sign up for our weekly Headlines newsletter.

This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2020.