![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-8-1.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\u201cWe saw a bear probably about four or three months ago\u2026 like a 450-pound bear was in my backyard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this Christmas Eve, a special visitor came to their property\u2026 and it wasn\u2019t Santa Claus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was like that big at the highest point and then about that long,\u201d he said, motioning to how large he remembers the panther. \u201cThey are slender, but they are muscular.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He saw it about 15 feet away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt did not run off,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of step by step. And she would mess with it, like go meow meow, and it looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FGCU Biology Professor Billy Gunnels said it is still very rare to spot these panthers in the grass since they are endangered, but their population is actually growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you have a chance of seeing a panther in the wild, you should count yourself fortunate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gunnels said panther sightings are unlikely, especially in Lehigh. From their research, that is the northern edge of their range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith Lehigh, there might be good reliable food sources in terms of pigs and deer, armadillos and raccoons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During colder weather like these past few days, he said the panthers tend to move during the day when it is the warmest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This could explain why the panther did not run away when Sean and his family saw it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe might be seeing more of them because their numbers do seem to be improving,\u201d Gunnels said. \u201cAnd in addition to improvement, they do seem to be moving further and further away from where we were seeing them in the 1990s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So keep your eyes open for a panther, and if you see one, call FWC so they can document it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sean Burlarley and his fianc\u00e9 see all types of wildlife in their backyard off of State Road 82 in Lehigh Acres. \u201cWe saw a bear probably about four or three… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":56642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[2033],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56641"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56644,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56641\/revisions\/56644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}