Panther kitten roadkill reported in Hendry County

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

A six-month-old panther kitten found dead along the side of a rural road in Hendry County was killed in a collision with a vehicle near the county landfill.

Update: 2:30 p.m.

A Florida panther kitten killed in a collision with a vehicle this week was removed from the roadside this morning after biologists found no signs the kitten's mother's return.

Biologists feared that if they removed the dead kitten too soon, the mother would be in danger of getting hit and killed as well as she looked for the kitten.

The kitten was left overnight Thursday and cameras were set up to monitor the scene, but they captured no activity and biologists found no new tracks.

Biologists said the kitten was about six months old and weighed 32 pounds. It is being kept at the Naples office of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

A necropsy is planned at an unspecified date, and the remains will be archived at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Posted Thursday:

A Florida panther kitten was killed in a collision with a vehicle sometime Wednesday night about six miles west of Felda in Hendry County, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported this morning.

The 6- to 8-month-old female is the sixth panther found dead so far this year and the fourth to be killed in collisions with vehicles, according to state figures.

The Conservation Commission says the collision happened on a rural road north of State Road 82 and west of State Road 29.

Florida panthers, an endangered species, are running out of room in Southwest Florida as their population has expanded and growth has cut into their habitat. Scientists say between 110 and 120 are left in the wild.