Two More Endangered Florida Panthers Killed by Vehicles, Raising 2023 Death Toll to Ten

Road deaths of the critically endangered species keep rising in Florida, despite measures to protect them; 64 panthers have died since 2021 with habitat loss posing imminent threat to the remaining 230 in the wild.

Two endangered Florida panthers, a 2-year-old male and a 3-year-old female, were recently found dead near wildlife management areas in Hendry and Glades Counties, marking the tenth panther deaths caused by vehicle collisions this year.
Statistics compiled by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reveal that all 10 panther deaths in 2023, and 64 since 2021, have resulted from vehicle collisions, with seven out of the ten fatalities this year occurring in Collier County.
Once spread across the entire Southeast, the endangered panthers' habitat has now shrunk to a small region of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico, with 230 of them thought to remain in the wild.
The Florida panther was one of the initial species included in the U.S. endangered species list in 1973 after hunting significantly reduced their population, and it is currently the only surviving subspecies of mountain lion in the eastern U.S.
In addition to the risk from vehicles, the small numbers of Florida panthers are at risk from low genetic diversity, diseases such as feline leukemia, and mercury pollution; habitat loss due to construction activities is also a significant factor.