Wildlife officials are issuing a warning after another endangered Florida panther was killed by a car in the state this week, marking the eighth killed this year.
The male panther was just two years old, and officials reported finding its remains on Monday along Interstate 75 in Collier County.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, there have been 62 Florida panthers killed by a car since 2021.
As for the eight killed this year, officials shared that they were all caused by vehicle collisions. Seven of the eight animals were killed in Collier County. Three were a year old or younger.
Last year, there were 27 panthers struck and killed by vehicles in the state, and the same number were killed in 2021, according to statistics from the commission.
In 1973, the animals that once roamed the entire Southeast were put on the endangered species list, according to the National Wildlife Federation.
While before the habitat was robust, it has now been confined to a small region of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico, partly due to overhunting the species, NWF shared.
NWF says the Florida panther is the only subspecies of mountain lion that can still be found in the eastern parts of the country, and only around 230 remain in the wild.
Because of the small panther population, officials worry about the lack of genetic diversity, mercury pollution, and diseases like feline leukemia.
“The subspecies is so critically endangered that it is vulnerable to just about every major threat,” the NWF says.