It’s been awhile, but I swear I have a good reason — we bought a house! (And I haven’t stopped thinking up new and interesting post ideas).
On one of our first mornings in the new house, I looked out the front window to see a flock of brown ibises hunting for bugs in our front [...]
It’s a park, and also a natural filtering system.
A new park opened last fall in Naples, and it’s unique because along with being a place to enjoy being outside, it’s also a water filtering area. Storm water passes through the park and gets filtered before it dumps into the Gordon River and then into Naples [...]
A good friend of mine works at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and she told me that a rare animal came into the clinic recently — an Everglades mink.
There are three populations of minks in Florida. The first population is the Everglades mink, which lives in South Florida and is listed as a threatened species, [...]
Royal terns remind me of grumpy older men, because they have these partial-black caps that make them look bald and stick up in the back like cowlicks.
You’ll often see them in flocks on the beach here in Naples — I did recently on a cold day and they all stood with their orange beaks facing [...]
Last weekend 10 manatees that had gotten into trouble around the state were rescued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and their partners.
Most of the manatees had cold stress, which happens when temperatures drop below 68 degrees for too long.
Four juvenile manatees were rescued in St. Petersburg, Bradenton and Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge [...]
Florida has a lot of popular and often heard about endangered species: Manatees, panthers and sea turtles, to name a few. But endangered wood rats don’t sound so glamorous.
(Though they are quite cute.)
I discovered them when I was researching Burmese pythons, because apparently the invasive snakes eat the woodrats.
They’re called Key Largo woodrats, and at [...]
It’s like a horror movie plot. A devastating storm hits and huge snakes that squeeze their prey to death are escape into a jungle. They start reproducing, and soon, the population spirals out of control.
In Florida’s Everglades, it’s actually happening. No one knows exactly how many Burmese pythons there are out there in the swamp, [...]
People move south to Florida for many reasons, but the story of the Koreshans might be one of the most unique.
In 1894, a religious man from New York arrived in Estero to found a new religion called Koreshanity and a settlement he called “New Jerusalem.” The dream lasted awhile, and about 250 followers of Cyrus [...]
It’s still cold here, and I’ve been wondering how it’s affecting wildlife. Awhile back I wrote about sea turtles, manatees, iguanas and Burmese pythons changing their habits because of the cold.
But what about fish?
Turns out, it’s bad for them too. According to an article I found in Field and Stream, up to 7 percent [...]
A swamp might not sound glamorous, but this swamp is of international importance.
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was named a wetland of international importance by an intergovernmental wetlands convention. To celebrate the swamp’s designation, Florida governor Charlie Christ and other officials from U.S. Fish & Wildlife, Audubon, and the convention will be there.
The convention’s goal is to [...]
