Florida Panther Mortality
1978 - 1997
Mortality of Radio-collared Panthers
Total = 41		 Total Known Mortality
Total = 65
Highway Mortality Intraspecific Aggression Shootings
Infectious Diseases Non-infectious Diseases Unknown/Other
Highway Injury
Courtesy of Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission

From March 1978 through March 1997, 65 panther deaths were documented. Of these 41 were radio-collared and 24 were uncollared. Because the presence of a radio collar allows researchers to discover some causes of panther deaths that would otherwise have escaped detection, it probably represents the more accurate portrait. Without mortality sensing collars most deaths attributable to infectious disease, bacterial infections, mercury toxicity, congenital heart defects and some other causes would likely go undiscovered.

The most common causes of death of radio collared animals were intraspecific aggression (fighting) (N = 13, 32%) followed by highway mortality (N = 9, 22%), non-infectious diseases (N = 8, 20%) such as bacterial infections, congenital heart defects, and mercury toxicity, unknown or miscellaneous (N = 6, 15%), infectious diseases (N = 2, 5%), and 1 non-fatal shooting (2%).

Alligator Alley (now I-75) and State Road 29 pass through the heart of panther habitat in southwest Florida. They were the highways responsible for the majority of all road mortality. However, wildlife underpasses were incorporated into the recently completed redesign and improvement of these roadways. Since completion in 1991 and 1995 no panthers have been killed on either I-75 or State Road 29, respectively, and the effect of highway mortality upon panthers has diminished.