Lessons from the past may improve the future for manatees

Lessons from the past may improve the future for manatees

While current manatee populations in Florida are threatened, their populations are higher than they ever historically were. Records show that manatee (Trichechus manatus) populations grew and began expanding across the Florida Peninsula during the same documented periods of human population increases, anthropogenic landscape changes, and social and policy changes. But with an increase in humans, […]

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Rappahannock Tribe first in US to enshrine rights of nature into constitution

Rappahannock Tribe first in US to enshrine rights of nature into constitution

The Rappahannock Tribe has become the first tribal nation in the United States to successfully adopt a tribal constitution that recognizes the rights of nature, giving legal protection to the river it has lived alongside for thousands of years. The new constitution recognizes nine specific rights for the Rappahannock River, including rights to “naturally exist, […]

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Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja), Florida’s iconic wading bird.

Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja), Florida’s iconic wading bird.

Striking, beautiful, bizarre, fascinating – all are adjectives used to describe Florida‘s iconic Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja). The pink color of it’s feathers is diet-derived, from carotinoid pigments. Spoonbills wade through the shallows, swishing their spoon shaped bills from side to side…feeding on crustaceans, aquatic insects, frogs, newts and small fish. Hunted almost to extinction […]

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