Deep in the Lake Wales Ridge State Forest, a network of trail cameras is documenting the wildlife moving through a landscape increasingly intersected by roads and development.
For the past three years, ZooTampa at Lowry Park and the nonprofit fStop Foundation have worked together to monitor those cameras, collecting data intended to help planners decide where roads, buildings and wildlife crossings should be placed.
The collaboration has taken on added significance as work advances on Florida’s first wildlife overpass, which is being built above Interstate 4 near Lakeland and is scheduled to open in 2027. Cameras deployed around the project will help researchers track how panthers and other animals move through the area…