IMMOKALEE — Authorities say a Florida panther has been found dead from an apparent vehicle strike in southwest Florida.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reports that the body of the 4-year-old female panther was found Tuesday on a rural road east of Immokalee. The remains were to undergo a necropsy.
A total of eight Florida panthers have been found dead in 2017, with six road fatalities.
Florida panthers once roamed the entire Southeast, but only about 230 remain in the wild.