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A panther struck and killed by a car west of the Card Sound Bridge is fueling activists' opposition to a proposed development.
BY CURTIS MORGAN
cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com
The odds of seeing a Florida panther, one of the rarest creatures in the world, are long. Odds of a panther being struck by a car in Southeast Florida are longer still -- it last happened nearly 20 years ago. Odds of the circumstances surrounding a female cat that was killed Thursday night along Card Sound Road make winning the 23 million-to-one lottery jackpot sound downright likely. That's because the people who witnessed the panther hit-and-run are environmentalists who two days earlier filed a federal lawsuit aimed at derailing a 6,000-home development proposed just up the road. One of their arguments is the remaining open lands south of Florida City and Homestead provide critical habitat for panthers, an animal protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The activists acknowledged the coincidence sounds improbable, but called it fate that they crossed paths with an unfortunate panther in a place they are battling to preserve.
Everglades National Park Photo
''I am sure there are folks out there who are going to draw conclusions and they'd be wrong. We did not go looking for a panther to run over,'' said Cynthia Guerra, executive director of the Tropical Audubon Society, a group in the lawsuit. ``It was serendipity that our feelings that cats are in this area were confirmed.'' The panther was the fourth killed by a vehicle in the state this year. Roadkill has become a growing concern for state and federal wildlife managers trying to ensure the survival of the scarce and secretive cats. Most of the deaths have occurred in the prime panther territory of Southwest Florida, where five to 10 animals have been struck annually over the last few years -- usually at night when the animals are on the move and hunting.
Darrell Land, panther team leader for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the numbers simply did not add up: more people, more roads and more panthers, whose statewide population has tripled in the two decades, but only to an estimated 80 to 90 adults. ''I think it's just a symptom of development finally reaching and closing the gap of where the wild places are and where the urban places are,'' Land said. But a car strike on the southeast side of the state is extremely rare, he said, in large part because the population of cats prowling Everglades National Park and marshes and open fields to the east and south has remained very small, perhaps 10 or so animals. The only other documented vehicle strike in the area was in July 1988, when a cat equipped with a radio collar was hit about a mile east of U.S. 1 on Palm Drive in Homestead.
Thursday's incident happened around 9 p.m. as a caravan of environmentalists was returning from a presentation on Everglades restoration at Ocean Reef on North Key Largo. John Adornato, Everglades policy representative for the National Parks Conservation Association, also a party in the lawsuit, said he was driving three or four lengths behind a sport utility vehicle. About two miles west of the Card Sound Bridge, he saw an animal suddenly bolt from the brush in front of the SUV. The vehicle, dark-colored but of uncertain make, hit the animal, swerved and continued on, he said. Adornato was forced to swerve himself before he turned back around to see what happened. There in the road lay a golden cat about four feet long. Because it showed no obvious wounds, he waited to approach it.
Alan Farago, a Sierra Club member driving not far behind, said he pulled up less than a minute later. By then it was clear the cat was dead. ''Just terrible,'' said Adornato. Guerra, who had spent years working in the area as a county wetlands regulator -- though she had never seen more than a paw print -- drove up 10 minutes later. ''I just had this complete girly-girl reaction to it. I started bawling on the spot,'' she said. ``To have that be the first cat I've seen, a dead one on the side of the road, just killed me.'' They pulled the panther to the shoulder, called police and wildlife agencies, and left after about half an hour.
''We thought we had done all we could for her,'' said Adornato. The carcass was picked up late Thursday night by a Miami-based wildlife officer for storage until a necropsy can be done, said Jorge Pino, spokesman for the wildlife commission's South Florida office. While the cat did not have a radio collar, it is possible it could have been embedded with a small micro-chip, like those used in pets, that would tell biologists more about its origins.
Pino said officers would talk with the activists about what they saw in hopes of tracking down the SUV driver, but said there weren't likely to be any charges for accidentally hitting an animal.
The activists said they did not want to exploit the animal's death, but said it bolstered arguments about the value of the vast open lands along U.S. 1 and Card Sound in extreme South Dade.
Scientists say the cats require large ranges and past satellite tracking shows them using much of the area, including a nearby 1,000 acres where the Lennar Corp. is proposing a development called Florida City Commons.Current Mood:  crushed |
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