By Alisa Opar
Recognizing shadows in the dark is hard at best, but if they trigger a motion detector, it just might be possible to glimpse them. That’s the thinking behind Florida officials’ new plan to help stop highly endangered Florida panthers from becoming road kill.
A creature once thought destined to follow the passenger pigeon into extinction, the panther has rebounded from only about 20 wild individuals in the 1970s to perhaps 100 today. But the path to a self-sustaining population is treacherous because of inbreeding, habitat loss, and highways that slice through their territories. By mid-summer vehicles had killed 11 of the tawny cats—about 10 percent of the known population.
Teklanika Nature Photography 