Bird ringing, Panther conservation and 'slogging'- February 29th.

Bird ringing at FGCU

Temperature: 26 degrees, mostly clear skies.

Before we visited Loxahatchee we made a trip to Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) and had a very interesting talk with professor Jerry Jackson. We discussed various banding techniques and their benefits. We also saw real life example of capturing (with mist nets) and banding birds such as the catbirds and warblers. A patching pine warbler unfortunately died due to a lack of feeding and stress (we were told that this is a very rare occurrence). 

Banding a Catbird!

The professor brought us through a small forest near near the campus where the birds were being caught. We were very careful when we were passing through as there was small patches of poison ivy seen. 

We had a very interesting talk on the history of bird banding and some of us even had the chance to band the birds ourselves! Of course, we were shown how to safely do this beforehand using a technique called the bander's grip. The bands used come in strings of 100 and must be in order, A plier (size of which is determined by the size of the band) is used to apply them. 

The history of bird banding started with Christian Moretson who was the first person to band birds (using zinc first but the switched to lighter aluminium). In 1911 the the American banding association was founded. The professor also stressed the importance of taking well wrote, detailed notes when banding birds and mentioned a technique called the Granelle system of note taking (using light, durable paper where the ink does not run). 

Alligator Flag seen at Naples Botanical Garden. 

We also saw alligator flag (Thalia Geniculata-arrowroot family) which has very large leaves and small purple flowers on two bracts and bay leaves 

   

The Panther conservation talk

After Professor Jerry Jackson's talk we got some food at FGCU campus and then enjoyed a very informative talk on the live's of the Florida Panther and efforts undertaken to conserve them as a species in Florida. We were given detailed information on the current panthers in Florida (all restricted to South FL). I was shocked to find out that there was only roughly 180 wild Panthers left in the world. The average male is about 130-160 pounds and roughly 8 foot long. The average female is about 70-100 pounds and roughly 6 foot long. White coloration is on the face and the inside legs of the Panther and it is concolour (tan is it's one colour). The average lifespan is 10-12 years and its primary prey is the white-tailed deer. One male Panther's territory is 200 squared miles and this was really put into perspective for me when we were told it was the same length as 97,000 football fields!

Roadkill is the biggest threat to Panthers along with it's vulnerability to feline leukemia. Inbreeding has also become an issue as Texas cougars was introduced to the population which also came with political issues. It was stressed how important it was to track and be able to identify each South Florida Panther. Panthers can be tracked mainly by examining scat, scrapes/scratched, drags (prey), tracks. Tracking dogs and the wildlife underpass are also used. The wildlife underpass is a remarkable way to track all sorts of wildlife at night as infrared cameras are set up as wildlife pass by. 16 South Florida Panthers are radio collared. The radio collars are two pound in weight and the battery last about 3 years. The radio collars worked through frequency so if a particular panther needs to be located you can simply tune to its frequency.

Slogging through the Cypress Swamp

'Slogging' was such a surreal experience for me and in my opinion was one of the highlights of the trip. We were escorted through the Cypress swamp by our guide Wynn who has done much research into flooding, hurricanes and is a renowned disturbance ecologist. His admiration of the Cypress swamp was clear when he asked us each to give three words to describe it for a poem he was working on. What made the Cypress swamp even better was that before the trip many of us had thought that the swamp would not live up to its name as in previous trips it was a much drier season. This time, however we had a great surprise because the water depth was almost waist high!

The 'knee' of a Cypress found at the entrance of the swamp

We were also showed the 'knee' of one of the cypress trees (which is usually above water level) and how it functions. The Cypress knee serves for structure and support and uses a buttressed system (large roots on all side of the tree). Although, it has also been hypothesized that they also help in oxygenation to the trees roots. 







The cypress dome was  beautiful and almost Cathedral-like as the taller trees were located in the center, surrounding the pond cypress. Apple snail (Ampullariidae) larvae (pink) was seen on many of the bases of the large trees along with some empty apple snail shells which were found on logs and at the base of the swamp. A beautiful peninsula ribbon snake (Thamnophis sauritus sackenii) resting on a log was spotted by one of the students. Some of the students held the ribbon snake who seemed fairly docile and relaxed in comparison to the black racer snake we saw some days later.