Biologists said Thursday they rescued a one-week old panther kitten at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge in Collier County.
The kitten was rescued by biologists at Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
They found the male panther kitten during a research conducted mid-January. The one-pound feline was in poor health and had a slow heart rate. He was shifted to Animal Specialty Hospital of Florida in Naples for treatment.
"We want to give any panther kitten the best opportunity to survive in the wild," said FWC veterinarian Dr. Mark Cunningham, according to a news release. "But clearly this kitten was in poor condition and almost certainly would have died without intervention."
Post-recovery, he was sent to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo. The panther will not be released in the wild because he was too young at the time of rescue to have learnt survival skills from his mother. Biologists said that they'll send him to Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. He is the fourth panther kitten rehabilitated by the zoo.
"This kitten exemplifies how joint efforts of the FWC, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and our partners are helping recover imperiled species in Florida," said Kevin Godsea, manager of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge for the USFWS, in a news release. "We are certainly pulling for him and hope he leads a long, healthy life."
The Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) was the first species added to the U.S. Endangered Species List in 1973 due to a significant drop in its population. There are currently nearly 100 Florida panthers left in the wild. According to the National Wildlife Federation, these cats are usually found in swamplands such as Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve.
These felines suffer from several threats such as habitat loss, disease, motor vehicles and low genetic diversity.
For more information about FWC's efforts on keeping the Florida panthers alive, visit this page.