They drift through the swamps in the middle of the night like ghosts in a foggy dream.
Fierce predators that can take down prey much larger than themselves, bobcats are near the top of the food chain in a state that s known for large, deadly critters.
Smaller in stature that the state animal the Florida panther bobcats are found throughout the Sunshine State and fill an important ecological role by keeping small mammal numbers at a healthy level. Bobcats prey primarily on rodents, rabbits and birds and these prey items are often found in suburban and urban environments, said Michelle Kerr, with the Florida Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg. As long as there is adequate cover available, bobcats can live among people.
State water managers oppose legislation to expand basin boundary
State legislators are sponsoring bills to expand the authority overseeing water control structures in Collier County, but the state agency overseeing the governing board thinks it’s a bad idea.
State Sen. Ray Rodrigues (R-Estero) introduced a bill to expand the Big Cypress Basin’s governing board’s boundary into portions of southern Lee County by July 1, 2022. State Representative Adam Botana is sponsoring a similar bill in the House.
Rodrigues’ Senate bill went through an Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government meeting April 8 where South Florida Water Management District representative Phil Flood opposed the legislation.
In November 2014, Floridians voted overwhelmingly in support of the Water and Land Legacy Amendment (Amendment 1), with the primary purpose of restoring funding for conservation land acquisition through the Florida Forever program. Florida Forever was launched in 2001 as a replacement for Preservation 2000, once the largest land conservation acquisition program of its kind in the United States.
Funding came from a third of real estate documentary fees, but this has been greatly reduced since the Great Recession. But, as Florida’s economy recovered from the economic downturn, funding for this land conservation program did not. And so, a coalition of conservation groups, including the Florida Wildlife Federation, garnered the support needed to pass this historic Amendment 1.
Florida Everglades: Wading birds nesting early, in big numbers naplesnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from naplesnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
They re acrobatic magicians, raptors that hunt, eat and live mostly on the wing.
Known for their aerial grace and their ability to snatch shifty prey out of the air, swallow-tailed kites spend much of the fall and winter in South America but come here to Florida in February or March for breeding season.
They re here now and will be gliding, swooping, flipping and twisting overhead for the next six months. The toy that we fly on a string is named after these birds, said Paul Gray, biologist with Audubon Florida. The swallow-tailed kite is a world-class bird the black and white striking colors and the grace with which they fly through the air.