Photographer snaps endangered panther in Collier’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Early on a Saturday in early March, novice wildlife photographer Jo Gryniewicz was first-in to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary east of Naples. Experienced shooters know that the extra folks round, the less animals stick out their heads.

Gryniewicz walked by the doorway into the slice-of-really-old-Florida, to not take photographs of the 800-year-old historical bald cypress, nor the super-rare, tremendous ghost orchid, nor every other vegetation which have made the sanctuary a global vacation spot.

For greater than 25 years, animals have been her factor. Home is Pennsylvania, the place she’s the proprietor and photographer of a pet portrait store, partly, to pay for excursions like this one-week journey to Southwest Florida to shoot wildlife photographs.

ALSO READ: ZooTampa welcomes healed Florida panther as a everlasting resident

That Saturday morning, just some toes into the sanctuary, simply by the doorways separating rural Collier County from the well-known 2.3-mile boardwalk that winds about within the historical swamp forest and stays cool even in the course of the summer time, she observed some painted buntings perched on a birdfeeder nibbling away.

The multicolored hen is arguably essentially the most gorgeous in North America. If whomever determined what to call flying animals was considering straight that day, that songbird can be generally known as the rainbow.

A loud rustling sound behind Gryniewicz pulled her consideration that means. Something huge is pushing apart noticed palmetto fronds because it moved towards her.

She turned to see a Florida panther frozen in place, the look on its face betraying that it wasn’t anticipating to interrupt by the understory into plain view about 30 toes away.

ALSO READ: Wildlife advocates worry modifications to Endangered Species Act will imperil Florida panthers, manatees

“I looked in that direction, just to see that big cat coming through and looking right at me,” she mentioned. “At the same time that I realized it was there, it realized I was there.”

The panther stayed immobile. Gryniewicz shoots — one, two, three photographs. Muscle reminiscence.

“You’re kind of trained as a photographer to pick up your camera and shoot before you actually even know what’s going on,” she mentioned. “I took a couple of shots before realizing even that I was really, you know, taking a picture of a panther.”

A pair of benches virtually blocked the shot of the panther’s huge, brilliant, blue eyes. That’s the characteristic of the creature that, just like the endlessly smile of a bottlenose dolphin or the black patches across the eyes on the bright-white face of an enormous panda, makes the animal universally lovable.

“It stayed there for 15 seconds and then turned back and started running the other way.”

Gryniewicz’s coronary heart raced. Thirty toes away, three photographs. In her digital camera are pictures of a extremely endangered animal that some skilled photographers by no means see within the wild.

Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded partly by VoLo Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to speed up change and international influence by supporting science-based local weather options, enhancing training, and bettering well being.

Copyright 2026 WGCU