Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
known to exist, they're not out of the swamp yet. The biggest killers of panthers are motor
vehicles. Every year a handful - sometimes more - of panthers are killed on roads; pay
particular attention to speed limits posted in areas such as the Tamiami Trail, which cuts
through Everglades National Park and the Big Cypress Preserve.
You're not likely to see a panther, but black bears have recovered to a population of
around 3000. As their forests diminish, bears are occasionally seen traipsing through sub-
urbs in northern Florida.
Easy to find, white-tailed deer are a common species that troubles landscaping. Endemic
to the Keys are Key deer, a Honey-I-Shrunk-the-Ungulate subspecies. Less than 3ft tall
and lighter than a 10-year-old boy, they live mostly on Big Pine Key.
Although they are ostensibly native to the American West, the adaptable coyote has
been spotted across Florida, appearing as far south as the Florida Keys. Hopefully they
won't swim too much further or else they'll end up on Big Pine Key, home of the afore-
mentioned Key deer.
The critically endangered red wolf once roamed the bottomlands, marshes and flooded
forests of the American eastern seaboard, particularly the southeast. Due to hunting and
habitat loss the red wolf was almost wiped out, but a breeding population has been estab-
lished at the St Vincent National Wildlife Refuge, located off the coast of the Panhandle.
Audubon of Florida (
www.audubonofflorida.org
)
is perhaps Florida's leading conservation
organization. It has tons of birding and ecological information, and it publishes
Florida
Naturalist
magazine.
Marine Mammals
Florida's coastal waters are home to 21 species of dolphins and whales. By far the most
common is the bottlenose dolphin, which is highly social, extremely intelligent and fre-
quently encountered around the entire peninsula. Bottlenose dolphins are also the species
most often seen in captivity.
The North Atlantic population of about 300 right whales comes to winter calving
grounds off the Atlantic Coast near Jacksonville. These giant animals can be over 50ft
long, and are the most endangered species of whale.
