08/09/2026
Florida panther FP224 was hit by cars twice, broke the same hind leg twice, produced three litters of kittens between the crashes, and walked out of rehabilitation with two of her sons beside her. The first vehicle struck her in 2013. She was rescued, repaired, and released. In the four years between that crash and the next one, she produced three litters, adding at least nine kittens to a population that numbers between 120 and 230 adults. On a December night in 2017, a car hit her on Collier Boulevard in Naples. She broke her hind leg again.
The second crash was worse because she was not alone. FP224 had dependent kittens somewhere in the brush near Collier Boulevard. A mother Florida panther with a shattered hind leg lying on a Naples road meant that somewhere nearby, at least two young cats were waiting for a meal that was not coming home.
FWC panther biologists rushed FP224 to the Animal Specialty Hospital of Florida in Naples. Veterinarians plated the fracture with steel. The FWC panther veterinarian transferred her to White Oak Conservation Foundation in Yulee, near the Georgia border, for rehabilitation. Then the biologists went back to Naples to find the kittens.
FP224 had produced a litter of one female and two males. Biologists set up cameras near the injury site. Two of the kittens, both males, were photographed and captured almost immediately. The female was not located. The two males were transported to White Oak and held separately from their mother while her leg healed. A panther kitten climbing on a mother with a freshly plated fracture could undo the surgery. The family needed to be apart before it could be together.
In March 2018, the FWC reunited the three panthers in a one-acre outdoor enclosure at White Oak. The mother and both sons were placed together to maintain the family bond and allow FP224 to resume teaching the kittens the survival and social skills they would not receive in captivity. Darrell Land, the FWC panther team leader, explained the decision: typically, orphaned kittens still dependent on their mothers need to be kept in captivity until they can survive on their own. However in this case, the mother can continue to raise her kittens.
On April 10, 2018, the FWC opened the gate on the Picayune Strand State Forest in Collier County. FP224 walked out with both male kittens beside her. It was the first time the FWC had rescued, rehabilitated, and released a Florida panther family group.
The story that matters is not the two crashes. Panthers are hit by cars in South Florida constantly. Vehicle strikes are the leading cause of death in the species, accounting for roughly 59 percent of documented panther mortality. Collier Boulevard runs through the heart of panther habitat. The road that hit FP224 twice has hit other panthers before and since. Two kittens were killed on a Collier County road in 2025. The roads are not getting safer. The panthers are not getting fewer.
The story that matters is what FP224 did between the crashes. Three litters in four years from an animal that had already been hit once and recovered. Every kitten she produced between 2013 and 2017 entered a population so small that a single reproductive female's output is measurable against the total. She was hit, fixed, released, and immediately resumed the only job that keeps the Florida panther from sliding back toward the 20 animals it was reduced to in the 1970s. Then she was hit again, fixed again, reunited with her sons, and released again to keep doing it.
Image is for illustration purposes only
Source: FWC / CBS Miami / Sebastian Daily / WINK News / White Oak Conservation Foundation.
