An hour east of crowded Tampa, a search is underway for endangered Florida panthers

LAKE WALES RIDGE STATE FOREST — Sixty miles east of downtown Tampa, deep in a forest of pine trees and saw palmettos, a camera is tied to a tree.

About the size of a tissue box and camouflaged like bark, this hidden device has captured remarkable scenes of untouched wilderness.

A coyote scurries by, its bushy tail bobbing. A bobcat moseys along the sandy trail. A husky black bear, with a noticeable wound on its head, lugs its way past the trail camera early one morning, and returns in the opposite direction 10 hours later.

But the most important footage this camera has documented came on April 19 — and again two weeks later. A male Florida panther, one of the estimated 200 of its kind left in the wild, struts past under the veil of nightfall. It has a limp but otherwise appears healthy.

“We were so excited. Even if you spend a lot of time outside, chances are you’ve never seen a Florida panther. They are so easy to miss,” said Tiffany Burns, senior director of animal programs at ZooTampa. “We’ve always wanted to document one, and to now actually have it on camera? It’s really cool.”

Below: See the rare footage, documented by ZooTampa and the fStop Foundation, of a male panther in Lake Wales Ridge State Forest on April 19 and on May 2

The zoo has teamed with the fStop Foundation, a West Palm Beach nonprofit, to monitor cameras along the sprawling and sandy Lake Wales ridge. The foundation uses photography to raise awareness about conservation and has 160 trail cameras throughout the state.

Burns joined two other staffers last week on a journey into the Central Florida wild to check the zoo’s six motion-activated trail cameras around Lake Wales Ridge State Forest.

Over a 4-hour trip July 8, the crew drove off-road to each camera, downloaded footage onto a laptop, reviewed each video and replaced the camera batteries. They’ll do it again next month with the hopes of logging more panther videos.

This effort, and the footage it has produced, comes at a pivotal time in the species’ history.

As Florida’s population grows and its wilderness shrinks, the crucial habitat panthers need to thrive is increasingly hard to find. A key to their survival, biologists say, is a northward expansion away from their dwindling home in Southwest Florida.

In 2017, wildlife biologists confirmed the hopeful milestone that Florida panther kittens had been found north of the Caloosahatchee River in Southwest Florida for the first time in decades, and there have been other northern sightings since.

That’s why this latest footage is an important moment: It’s video proof that Florida panthers are migrating.

“This is a great reminder to everybody about the incredible wildlife we have right in our backyard,” said Chris Massaro, ZooTampa’s senior vice president of zoological operations and one of three staff members who checked trail cameras last week.

“It reminds us, too, that we have to coexist and share this beautiful state with its incredible wildlife.”

Cars take their toll

The Florida panthers’ reintroduction to northern lands is not without heartbreak.

In 2022, an adult male Florida panther was killed by a vehicle in Hillsborough County, marking the first recorded panther death in the county in nearly two decades, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Though tragic, the death signaled to conservationists that panthers had made their way back to Florida’s fourth-most populous county.

“The biggest struggle that panthers face right now is humans with cars,” said Roni Allen, ZooTampa’s manager of donor services and a member on the camera-monitoring team.

That has been especially true since last year, when vehicles caused all 13 confirmed panther deaths, according to annual state wildlife data. Male panthers tend to travel farther than females, sometimes spreading out their home range by 200 square miles.

The deaths have mounted. More panthers died through June than all of last year. Biologists confirmed the 16th death of the year on July 5, when a male panther was struck by a vehicle in Collier County.

State data shows at least 12 panthers so far this year were killed by cars.

“We have to learn how to live amongst wildlife,” Burns said. “When you’re driving in an area where there’s a wildlife crossing — whether it’s panther or a different animal — obey that and slow down, pay attention and look for wildlife.”

A guide to living with panthers, made by the state’s wildlife agency, also suggests that people in rural areas avoid growing plants that attract prey like deer and other small animals. That might deter panthers from drawing closer to livestock and people.

Efforts to conserve land, through the St. Petersburg-based Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation and other groups, have connected nearly 18 million acres to provide wildlife a seamless habitat to roam. Experts say more is needed, though, to ensure the longevity of species like panthers, bears and bobcats.

Here in Polk County, the tragedy of recent deaths is softened by sightings of healthy cats.

ZooTampa staff and Florida biologists hope the fate will be different for the limping, but otherwise healthy, male caught on camera this spring.

It was seen on another fStop Foundation camera about 12 miles from the state forest in April and May, according to zoo staff. The movements offer important data that shows which land panthers are using and when, Massaro said.

“We need panthers to spread out. If we want a population that can sustain, they need to be in a larger range of territory,” Burns said. “If we protect land and we help the panther, we’re going to be helping all the species that we see on these cameras.”