Wildlife experts have blamed toxic red tide algae and a cold snap for the deadly 2018 experienced by manatees, but so far this year, boats are the primary cause. From the beginning of this year through June 21, 81 manatees have been killed by watercraft in Florida’s waters, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife […]
Tag: florida
POLL: Should the Osprey be removed from Florida’s endangered list?
Florida wildlife officials have removed the Keys’ population of ospreys from the state’s list of Species of Special Concern after finding statewide numbers are up. Some had wanted the Keys’ birds listed as their own distinct population. The Florida Keys’ ospreys, the fierce fish hawks whose massive nests dot utility poles, channel markers and nesting […]
POLL: Should this Florida zoo offering swims with tiger cubs be closed down?
Thanks to animal activist organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a Florida zoo will likely never be allowed to own tigers again. In October of 2016, PETA sued Dade City’s Wild Things and owners Kathryn and Randall Steares in federal court in Tampa. The organization alleged that DCWT’s practice of allowing the public […]
POLL: Should the keeping of big cats as pets be banned?
When a Florida private school featured a caged tiger at prom this year, animal rights advocates were aghast. The tiger paced nervously as fire dancers juggled torches outside his cage, surrounded by sparklers and hundreds of Christopher Columbus High School students. “This tiger’s not celebrating. This tiger’s not having a party,” Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill […]
POLL: Should Florida’s invasive iguanas be killed off?
Florida is struggling with a fast-increasing population of invasive green iguanas that began as a small group of released and escaped pets. Thriving in the warm sunshine and humid climate, experts believe hundreds of thousands of nonnative iguanas now call the Sunshine State “home.” There, state conservation officials claim they threaten the wellbeing of native […]
Florida Is ‘Raining Iguanas.’ Will The Invasive Reptiles Adapt?
While much of the northern part of the U.S. copes with blizzard conditions, in Florida, it’s raining iguanas. Florida residents have been sharing pictures of the reptiles belly up in backyards and on the side of roads. The effect is brought on by the abnormally cold weather hitting the East Coast of the United States. […]
Florida Opened a Fake Alligator Farm to Catch Poachers
ARCADIA, FLORIDA – On a moonless night in mid-October, Wayne Nichols, 42, lit a cigarette and climbed up to the captain’s seat of a splatter-painted skiff. He eased the boat into the middle of a nameless canal somewhere between Sebring and Lake Placid, in south-central Florida. His clients, Pat Hopkins, 66, and her son Melvin […]
POLL: Should the trapping and “ranching” of chameleons be banned?
Armed with a flashlight on a backroad in Florida, Hillary Dupont-Joyce is on the hunt. Her target is a master of disguise, but a flash of light can make it stick out among the dark trees. She scans her light along a thicket. Suddenly, her trained eye spots the prize: a sleeping chameleon. Dupont-Joyce is […]
