Manatee County hunter captures Florida panther on trail camera

DUETTE, Fla. - It’s a quick 4-second video, but a Florida Panther was spotted on a trail camera at Duette Preserve in Manatee County. 

"The last deer hunt, he walked by right before I was about to walk out to my stand," said Justin Ainslie. "He was out there when I was hunting." 

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Justin Ainslie is a local hunter with a hunting permit at the preserve. 

He told FOX 13 that for the last few months, a male panther has been spotted frequently near his hunting stand. 

"I thought it was pretty cool. I had never seen one, and it’s cool to know it’s around the area," said Ainslie. 

Ainslie’s trail camera has been able to pick up even more photos and videos of what’s believed to be the same panther. 

This panther was spotted frequently near Ainslie's hunting stand.

"They’re pretty quick moving through, so sometimes you can get them, and sometimes you can totally miss them and just get a tail," Jerry Miller, a park ranger, said. "To be able to get a video of it continuously walking through is super unique and rare." 

Jerry Miller is a Park Ranger with Manatee County at Duette Preserve. He said it’s not the first time a panther was spotted in Duette. 

Ainslie believes this is the same panther.

He documented a Florida Panther two years ago along the boundary of the preserve in an orange grove. 

Male panthers are known to travel upwards of 139 miles. 

"To have this apex predator, you need green spaces. Duette Preserve is Manatee County’s largest preserve [at] about 22,000 acres, and that’s nowhere near big enough for the Florida Panther," Miller said. "We need green spaces, ranch lands, conservation lands together to give these animals a place to roam and move."

Jerry Miller took this footage two years ago of a panther right along the boundary of the preserve. 

As development increases in rural areas, panthers often lose their lives on roadways. 

Florida’s population of these panthers is up to around 200, but experts say more protection is needed to ensure their population survives. 

"It’s an experience that you will cherish for the rest of your life. It’s really rare; people think these Florida Panthers are mountain lions and dangerous, [and] they certainly deserve your respect, [and] you don’t want to approach a panther or anything like that, but they just want to co-exist and live and move through the swamps and do their thing," said Miller.