Spotting a panther in the wild in Florida is an incredibly rare and perhaps, once-in-a-lifetime experience that most Floridians will never have.
Florida panthers were nearly extinct in recent years, with their population numbers reportedly falling to as low as 200 panthers remaining in the wild.
Mostly, the big cats stay confined to the Everglades National Park and the surrounding areas, and in the Naples and Ft. Myers areas.
Steven Crawford of Punta Gorda shared the incredibly rare footage that he captured to his Facebook, showing a Florida panther swimming across the Peace River. It’s even rarer seeing the panther in this location, as the usual roaming ground of these panthers, is much further north.
Did the panther travel that far away from his natural habitat for an afternoon swim? Maybe a big catch they'd been hunting? Hard to say!