Many sea turtle hatchlings never make it to the relative safety of the sea.
Florida is a unique biosphere with tropical, subtropical and temperate climate bands, exposure on three sides to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, unusual wetlands, coral reefs and thousands of extraordinary plumed birds, parrots, raptors, adapted sea mammals, ancient sea turtles, crocodiles and gators and even some tiny deer and big cats -- all or most of them endangered. The loss of such biodiversity is an ongoing tragedy and a red flag that the environment for humans is at risk as well.
Florida Panther
The Florida panther, the state animal, is considered one of the most endangered mammals on the planet, according to Defenders of Wildlife. The panther belongs to a family of large cats variously called pumas, cougars, mountain lions, catamounts and panthers. It is has a golden brown back and a pale gray underbelly and roams, sometimes up to 200 miles, in the Everglades and disturbed habitats of South Florida. There are fewer than 100 of the animals left. The cats are threatened by lost and fragmented habitat as Florida's land is drained for agricultural use and converted to farms, or subdivided into communities and housing. The Interstate highways that crisscross its grounds mean that a number of the panthers are struck and killed each year. Inbreeding due to isolation is another vulnerability. Once plentiful throughout the entire southeastern United States, the few remaining panthers are emblems for the loss of wild habitat and rampant development that has irrevocably altered their last refuge.
Manatees
Efforts in Florida to restore safe habitat for the endangered manatee center on controlling boat traffic and speed, a major source of mortality for the slow-moving mammal. Additional effort goes into reversing changes in rivers, streams and springs that are manatee feeding and nursery grounds. Removing a dam and locks in a Central Florida river once again allows the manatee access to rich feeding areas and interconnected waterways that open to the Atlantic Ocean. By protecting the manatee, all the marine life that died off or was diverted by these artificial structures will have the chance to re-establish wild populations. What's good for the manatee is good for the entire ecosystem.
Leatherback Turtle
The huge leatherback sea turtle that has nested for centuries on Florida beaches, remains on the endangered list, along with most of the other sea turtles found in Florida waters. The turtles are victims of condos and hotels built right to the waterline over nesting beaches, bright lights that disorient hatchlings and send them scrambling away from the safety of the sea, beach erosion due to storms and construction, commercial fishing practices that still catch and drown the turtles in large nets, and oil spills. During nesting season in the spring and summer of 2010, the catastrophic Gulf oil spill filled the water with raw crude and chemicals and the beaches with clumps and streaks of tar. It is a crime to dig up a nest and sell or consume the eggs, but that doesn't deter raccoons. The tender baby turtles are favorite foods of shorebirds and larger fish. The turtle's habitat loss coincides with the disappearance of beach dunes, stabilizing grasses and beach buffers against major storms and hurricanes that further erode beaches and destroy property and human life as well.
Wood Stork
You can still find a few wood stork nests on the tops of utility poles on the road to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral on Florida's Atlantic Coast. The stork is a tall beautiful wading bird with white feathers and a black-tipped 5-1/2-foot wingspan. It likes to wade in shallow drying wetlands with high concentrations of fish. If habitat disturbance interrupts available food, hatchlings will not survive in the tall nests, and the parents will abandon the nests. The wood stork is endangered because of severe declines in breeding populations due to loss of wetland feeding grounds.
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