While surveying near a canal at the West end of Price Street in Southwest Naples Thursday morning about 8:45 A.M., a Collier County survey crew (Dean Davis and Paul Masters) saw something that appeared to be a small deer about five hundred feet away. Upon closer examination through the surveying instrument, Davis was able to determine that the animal was not a deer, but a Florida Panther. He quickly snapped this photo with his mobile phone camera by holding it up to the eyepiece of the surveying instrument. The panther appeared to be wearing a radio transmitter collar. The panther quickly dashed into the nearby underbrush a few seconds later. Davis has been a land surveyor in Florida for over 35 years and had never seen a Florida panther before in the wild.
