{"id":49526,"date":"2024-09-08T19:07:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T23:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=49526"},"modified":"2024-09-08T19:07:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T23:07:31","slug":"endangered-florida-panther-spotted-four-times-on-trail-cameras-in-lake-wales-ridge-state-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/09\/08\/endangered-florida-panther-spotted-four-times-on-trail-cameras-in-lake-wales-ridge-state-forest\/","title":{"rendered":"Endangered Florida panther spotted four times on trail cameras in Lake Wales Ridge State Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A male Florida panther has been spotted on trail cameras in the Lake Wales Ridge State Forest four times now since the spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe has that limp, which he has had every time he\u2019s been sighted on the camera, but he has a nice full belly, so it looks like he\u2019s out there eating well,\u201d described Lisa Smith, the animal care supervisor for ZooTampa<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

ZooTampa helps to monitor the trail cameras, which belong to the F-Stop Foundation<\/a>, a conservation nonprofit with more than 150 trail cameras throughout the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt had been almost a year since we started working with F-Stop, so it was exciting that we finally got that moment,\u201d Smith said of the first sighting in April, which was followed by three more in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loss of habitat is a big factor in the Florida panther\u2019s decline. Considered critically endangered, it\u2019s estimated that there are less than 240 left in the wild, which makes this video that much more exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The F-Stop Foundation is able to set up its trail cameras through a special use permit with the Florida Forest Service, which helps the organization identify the locations for spotting wildlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are a long way away from them, unfortunately, coming off the endangered list. But every underpass that\u2019s built, every area of land that is protected for the future, is a huge step in the right direction, Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One that will hopefully help the panthers regain lost habitat and lower the chances of them wandering into traffic or neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, should a rescue be needed, ZooTampa is ready.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A male Florida panther has been spotted on trail cameras in the Lake Wales Ridge State Forest four times now since the spring. \u201cHe has that limp, which he has… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[9664],"class_list":["post-49526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-endangered-florida-panther-spotted-four-times-on-trail-cameras-in-lake-wales-ridge-state-forest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49528,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49526\/revisions\/49528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}