By

• Associated Press

Published Jan. 11|Updated Jan. 11

LABELLE — Wildlife officials have reported the first endangered Florida panther death of 2024.

The 1-year-old male was found dead Tuesday from an apparent vehicle strike on a rural road north of LaBelle in Hendry County, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

A total of 13 Florida panthers were reported killed in 2023, with all of them being from vehicle strikes. About a third of those deaths occurred in a one-week span in November, the Tampa Bay Times previously reported.

Florida panthers once roamed the entire Southeast. But now their habitat is mostly confined to a small region of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico.