Monday, March 30, 2009

Panther killed near entrance to Southwest Florida International Airport

naplesnews.com

Originally published 10:50 a.m., Thursday, March 26, 2009
Updated 10:50 a.m., Thursday, March 26, 2009

An endangered Florida panther was killed by a vehicle late Wednesday night near Southwest Florida International Airport, according to a report this morning from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

A Florida Gulf Coast University student discovered and reported the panther about 10:20 p.m. halfway between Terminal Access Road, the new entrance road to the airport, and Daniels Parkway, the Conservation Commission reports. Time of death was shortly before that, according to the report.

The panther, which did not have a radio tracking collar, was a male, about 1 1/2 years old. It did not have a transponder chip, cowlick or kinked tail, but it did have two descended testicles.

The carcass was placed in the freezer at the Naples office of the Conservation Commission and a necropsy will be performed at a later date. The remains will be archived at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Wednesday's incident marks the fourth panther to be killed on Southwest Florida roads so far this year. A fifth panther was killed by another panther at the Seminole Indian reservation in February.(read more)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We stay for the month of April at a condo in Beach Walk (Gladiolus and MacGregor. Last year, walking to a coffee shop nearby, we believe we saw a Florida Panther cross the road. It came from behine Bischotti's, and crossed into what at that poin was an uncleared field. That field has now been cleared, however.