Lakeland, FL : Florida panther hit, killed by a vehicle in Polk County on Wednesday night, March 9, 2016

A Florida panther was hit and killed Wednesday night on the Polk Parkway near Airport Road in Lakeland, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Thursday.

This is the first Florida panther killed by a vehicle in Polk County, according to a database maintained by the state wildlife agency.

Few details were immediately available on the animal, whose body was taken to the FWC office here for shipment to the FWC lab in Gainesville for a necropsy, said FWC spokesman Gary Morse.

The last panther-vehicle collision in Polk occurred in 2014 near Fort Meade.

That animal survived and was rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

The vast majority of vehicle-related panther deaths has occurred in southwest Florida south of the Caloosahatchee River, which is the only known breeding habitat.

Florida panthers have been documented moving through Polk County in various locations ranging from the Green Swamp north of Davenport to the Avon Park Air Force Range and Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Preserve State Park near Polk's eastern boundary.

The Florida panther has been classified as an endangered species since 1973.

Biologists estimate there are between 100 and 180 Florida panthers today as a result of management efforts that averted their extinction.

Source :
Florida panther hit, killed in Lakeland Wednesday night