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Elusive Florida predator spotted on trail cam — with two babies. See them
Elusive Florida predator spotted on trail cam — with two babies. See them

Miami Herald

time5 days ago

  • General
  • Miami Herald

Elusive Florida predator spotted on trail cam — with two babies. See them

A rare Florida panther made an appearance on a trail camera, accompanied by another 'special' sight — her two kittens. The panther was spotted in the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed in southwest Florida by Tom Mortenson, a volunteer photographer for CREW Land & Water Trust. With around 200 panthers estimated to be left in the wild, adult panthers are rare enough. But on top of that, only about one-third of panther kittens make it to their first birthday, according to the FWC. Mortenson identified the adult female panther as FP266, collared in January 2024 by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the CREW Land & Water Trust said in an email. Mortenson said in the email that FP266 had 'been living evasively since her capture.' He caught a glimpse of her walking by his trail cam in May 2024, but since then, she's gained a couple new followers. In June, he spotted her on one of his cameras with a single kitten. FWC biologists told him FP266 had a second kitten, based on other sightings of the panther family. Then a month later, Mortenson captured the whole family in frame. Mortenson said he was recovering from a surgery when he checked his camera footage and spotted the mom and her two kittens. 'Seeing these photos come into my iPhone was a very special delight,' he said. Nighttime footage shows the mom and her two kittens passing through a clearing within the 70,000-acre watershed. Panther mothers start bringing their young along to hunt at around 2 months old, and they begin catching small animals on their own at around 9 months of age, according to the FWC. While researchers don't know exactly when juvenile panthers leave their mothers, females don't breed again until their young can survive without her, which typically happens by the time they turn 2. In March, biologists tracked down a litter of panther kittens born to a mom who lost all three kittens from her litter the year before, McClatchy News reported. Most panthers live in southwest Florida, according to the FWC, including the area in and around the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed.

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