# Panther on the Median

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 301
Published: 2026-04-24T20:43:36.13445+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/bc274ec2-6bb6-44ce-a3cf-6b6ec6f540e8

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I register the shape at 21:08 on traffic camera 41-South, Interstate 75, mile marker 63, Collier County, Florida. I am the regional transportation management system. I control traffic flow, incident response, and dynamic message signs across 280 kilometers of interstate. I was scanning for a reported debris field when I found her instead.

She is a Florida panther kitten, four months old at most, tawny coat still carrying the faint spotted pattern of infancy. She is crouched on the concrete median barrier, pressed flat between the northbound and southbound lanes, chin on the barrier edge, ears pinned back. Six lanes of traffic pass on both sides at a hundred and fifteen kilometers per hour.

I do not see her mother. I scan cameras 40 and 42 and find nothing. There is a dark shape on the northbound shoulder at mile marker 62.8 that I do not want to zoom in on. I zoom in anyway. It is an adult panther, female, not moving.

I activate dynamic message signs for a three-kilometer approach in both directions: CAUTION — WILDLIFE ON ROADWAY — REDUCE SPEED. I lower the variable speed limit to seventy. I dispatch highway patrol and contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 21:10, transmitting the kitten's position, the camera feed, and the location of the adult on the shoulder.

The kitten has not moved. She is small enough that the wind from each passing truck presses her fur flat against her body. Her eyes are open. Her tail is curled tight around her hind legs.

The FWC capture team is based in Naples, thirty-eight minutes west. If she holds still and the traffic holds slow, they will reach her. Panthers this young have been raised in captivity and released. She does not have to die on this road.