Florida panther kitten caught on FWL field camera, Photo: Florid Fish and Wildlife, Public Domain

Good News about the Florida Panther

By Kelly Dean

I wrote at length about the plight of the Florida panther here earlier this month.

Well, today, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission releases photos that send a wave of optimism among panther fans.

It seems that a field camera has captured shots of a female with two youngsters in tow. The interesting thing is this is well north of the Caloosahatchee River in Charlotte County. This is incredible news because conservationists have been working for decades hoping panthers would move north across the Caloosahatchee “barrier” and commence breeding.

This shows that these efforts might be paying off.

Panthers had not been spotted north of the river since the early 70s. This is an important development because their Florida range now seems to be growing.

The Florida panther is the only large cat species east of the Mississippi River in the U.S.