00000170-b56e-d8aa-aff6-f7ee18ca0002 With the Wild Things is hosted by wildlife biologist Dr. Jerry Jackson and produced by the Whitaker Center in the College of Arts & Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University. Funded by the Environmental Education Grant Program of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, With the Wild Things is a one-minute look at a particular environmental theme. Dr. Jackson takes you through your backyard, and Southwest Florida’s beaches, swamps and preserves to learn about “the wild things”.
The Hispid Cotton Rat is a native American rodent that can be up to a foot long from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail – but it is usually smaller in Florida. This rodent has dense, long fur that is light colored at the base, brown towards the tip, and the tip is often black – giving the rodent a rather grizzled appearance. Hispid Cotton Rats are prolific, capable of producing as many as nine broods in a year – but their average life expectancy is less than a year. This is a species native to open, sunny, tall grass areas throughout the state and is a very important component of Florida’s natural ecosystems because it is food for most of our hawks and owls, and many snakes, and mammalian predators. Hispid Cotton Rats are also occasionally a problem species – especially because of their fondness for sugar cane and other succulent crops.