You don't belong here

The other day I was watching Animal Planet and this show, can't remember the name of it, came on about these three guys that go out and catch reptiles that are not suppose to be where they are. About ten minuets into the show I realized that they were in Florida, not too far from Fort Myers. There was this one lizard they were trying to catch that was hard to find and lived in trees. The one the caught had this plastic tube thing around its neck. They ended up not being able to find a place for it to live so they had to kill it. One of the guys took the lizard back to its house to study it. He cut it open and looked in the stomach to see it had been eating. He found some bugs and other random half digested things. He then opened up one that did not had something restricting its air way and found ten alligator eggs. That was the problem with these lizards, they were not native to Florida and are depleting the population of those animals that are native. That was the job of the three guys.

Oh Dancer

Another successful trip to Shy Wolf, I got to once again go into Dancers living area and spend time with her. I went in with a friend so I was not alone in their home. There is another wolf in the habitat with Dancer, Credence. He is afraid of people so he stayed away the whole time and just watched from a distance. Dancer on the other hand followed me everywhere. She first came up and sniffed me for like ten minuets because I was at my friends house before hand and she has a 4 month old pit bull. Once the sniffing was out of the way I was able to sit and pet Dancer. Every time I would stop petting her with in ten seconds she would raise her paw and swat my hand as if telling me what are you doing I did not tell you to stop. I would purposely stop just to see her do it again, me and my friend got a good laugh out of it. We were in there for half an hour then went to the front and hung out with Nancy, the owner of Shy Wolf Sanctuary. We talked about all the different things that Shy Wolf goes through and all the liabilities there are.

Big cage for a big cat

While I was at Shy Wolf I ended up helping Mark who has been with Shy Wolf since it started up. He had me cleaning one of the Florida panthers cages, luckily the one that was declawed. There are two sections of the cage that are seperated by a cage that has a door that is just a door that is on a string that you can pull down to open the door and release it to close the door. The closed off the door and I went in to one half of the cage while the panther was in the other. The entire time the panther just sat atop one of the jungle gym like things the cage and just stared me down. Every time I would get closer to the panther it would growl at me and show its teeth. This was very intimidating even though there was a fence separating us, but being alone in the cage while this huge animal is just watching is still terrifying. 

Shy Wolf Round 2

I went to Shy Wolf again and had a great time. This time we went straight to cleaning the wolves homes. Me and Jordan got the pleasure of being the pooper scoopers. When that job was finally done I went around and filled in holes that the wolves at decided to randomly dig. One hole I filled was actually a burrow, that was about two feet deep, that one of the wolves decided to dig. I first had to cave it in and then fill it up even though the wolves will probably just dig a new one. I asked why they did that and they do it because the sand down there is cool and it creates shade for them. We then moved on to the next cage which had a very friendly wolf and one that was very nervous around people. After me and Jordan walked around looking for poop, we cleaned out the water and put the hose in to give the wolves new water. We were in the cage with a seasoned volunteer because we are still new and her and Jordan were watching the water and I went off and sat on a bench. One of the wolves, Dancer, came up behind me and started sniffing me. We were told not to turn around because if we did the wolf would just run away so I just sat their and let her do her thing. I then noticed she stopped sniff and just rested her head on my foot. I then reached down and started rubbing her under neck. Dancer then rolled over onto her back exposing her belly for a belly rub. The seasoned volunteer came over and was in amazement, apparently if a wolf exposes its stomach to you that is a sign of trust.

ECHO Field Trip

            For my third field trip I went to ECHO (Education Concerning for Hunger Organization). It is a non-profit organization that has been running for over 50 years. There are 20 full time paid staff and the rest is completely run through volunteers. ECHO is all about new and improved ways of growing crops so that they are better and able to survive in habitats that would not normally be able to house plant life. ECHO is based in Florida and that is where they test their ideas and is able to recreate the living situation for the plants so that they know what can grow where and how to improve its growth. People from all over the nation come to ECHO to learn the ways of growing in hope of being one of the many sent to many other counties to show the natives how to grow crops and help them provide for their family both with the actual crop and profit from the crop. Since ECHO is a nonprofit organization they are constantly having to find new ways to stay self-sufficient. They run on the entrance fee, $5, volunteers, and donations. The environmental issues that ECHO deal with is vast, they are out here trying to recreate habitats to then find a way to produce not only a plant but a fruitful plant that with be great for harvest. The climate change also is a burden on ECHO but they have also found solutions for that as well. I was able to talk to Tim who is the Tropical Fruit Nursery Manager while I was on my tour. I thought about interviewing the tour guide we had at the end of the tour, but thought Tim would have some good insight for me. I asked Tim where he was from and he said he went to school in Minnesota, so I then asked him what he thought about the great Florida weather. He said as warm as it was it was good for the plants to have that much sun light and though it may be a challenge if it wasn’t he would be out of a job. I then asked him how he got involved with ECHO and he told me he was an intern in 2001 until 2002 when he left for Central Africa to work over there and use what he learned from ECHO. If I wanted to become involved in finding solutions to feed the hungry I could easily try my hardest to get into the program the ECHO runs with volunteers. They teach these volunteers how to produce crops in all sorts of environments and echo systems. What they are doing at ECHO is providing for millions of people because they are going off the age old saying, you can give a man a fish and fed him for a day or you can teach a man to fish and feed him for life. ECHO is not just giving these people aid by giving them food for a few moths, they are giving them seeds that will continue to provide food and they are teaching them how to plant these seeds in the environment they are in, some even without soil. I think what ECHO is doing is a start to feeding the billions of people in the world. They are providing a great deal of service to those people in need and giving them more than food but a way to provide for their families. We as a world need to stop worrying solely on our country but rather we as a world. We rely on other countries for many things that we would need to be able to continue to survive and if we do not help those in need that provide that who will provide it for us.

Shy Wolf Sanctuary

Last Friday I went to Shy Wolf Sanctuary to earn some of my service learning hours. I went with a group of friends and we were given a tour. The sanctuary is in the backyard of this woman's home, Nancy Smith, who worked with animals that were either abused by their owners or no longer wanted. One day she was given one of the animals and from then on she kept taking them in. She has a couple of acres of land and has devised living habitats for the wolves and other animals she houses while still leaving a path for others to walk and observe the beautiful animals. Along with multiple species of wolves she also how three different types of foxes, rabbits, prairie dogs, and two Florida panthers. We did not do much on our first day there because we were inexperienced and these wild animals we are dealing with. After the tour me and two others helped fix a pot hole that had formed in one of the cages. We were able to sit and pet some of the wolves but they are more afraid of us then we are of them which I was surprised by. That was the extent of our visit but I will be returning on Friday to enjoy some more of dancing with wolves.

Lover's Key

I really enjoyed being at Lovers Key. I love the beach and being outdoors with the warmth of the sun shining down on me. There is nothing better to me than the feel of sand between your toes and the sound of the waves crashing up on the shore and seagulls yelping as they fly by. The best is when the heat of the sun becomes too much and you jump into the water and feel the cooling of the chilly water. I feel like I should just live on the beach or at least within walking distance of it.

It was very windy which made the sand very even but at the same time gave off a wavy look. It was very soft on top but very hard and wet underneath from the rain. Well when I went there it was around noon so it was not high tide yet, but when you finally reached the sand you were on it for maybe another eight steps and there was the water. There was almost a ledge that you had to step down from that went from the main land to the sand and then the ocean. It was the high tide at night that produced this “ledge if you will.

Now this “ledge” proposed a small obstacle for the turtles that live in the water and lay their eggs on shore. They lay their eggs at night when high tide comes so they have to get rather far on shore to lay their eggs. These turtles have to get past the ledge and lay their eggs just so they will not get washed up by the tide. But once these eggs hatch the babies now have to get over the ledge and they are much smaller than the ones that put them so high on shore. Now as difficult a process this is for the turtles it is very beneficial to the Whiter Tern. The White Tern is one of many species of birds that live at Lovers Key, and they use this dividing ledge and lay their eggs also at the top of the ledge to keep them from predators. Lovers Key sets a parameter around where the birds lay their eggs so people do not disturb them, but the White Tern do a great job of that themselves. These birds are very territorial and several nearly stuck me with a fly by while I was walking the beach.

There were several birds that I both saw and did not see, but they are still well known to be seen at Lovers Key. The ones I was able to see were White Tern, Great Egret, and the White Ibis. The ones I did not see but saw documentation on were the Brown Pelican and Green Heron. Some non-woody plants I saw were the Coastal Sandspur (which I was lucky enough to step on), Railroad Vine, Sea Purslane, Sea Oxeye, and Beach Panic Grass. Trees that inhabit Lovers key are Coconut Palms, Red Mangroves, Mangroves, Dumbo Limbo, and a Jamaica Dogwood.

A unique characteristic of this environment was that it once was only accessible by boat and it was visited by lovers which went to be alone on this remote beach. It then became available to all when boardwalks were put for other to travel on. Another interesting fact is that from May until October the beach has Sting Rays that roam the bottom of the ocean floor, so they warn people to shuffle their feet when waling in the water. Also there are no homes on Lovers Key because it is a protected State Park.

The reason it is protected is because of the fact that it is a State Park. In the 1960s and 1970s the four barrier islands were slated for development. Preparations for development damaged the islands. Mangrove swamps were altered to uplands by dredging a canal through Black Island. In 1983, the state acquired the islands and in 1996, merged with adjacent Carl E. Johnson County Park to become Lovers Key Carl E. Johnson State Park.