Part 4

The turtles of the park include terrestrial, fresh-water, and marine species. Box turtles are often seen along the roads. The softshell and snapping turtles live in the fresh-water areas and are often eaten by alligators. Loggerhead turtles nest on Cape Sable beaches, otherwise they rarely come ashore. Their eggs are often discovered and devoured by the abundant raccoons. But man has been largely responsible for the loggerhead’s increasing rarity.

Although the park has about two dozen species of snakes, you may not encounter any of them. Most are harmless—several species of snakes frequent the waterways, and it is a mistake to assume that any water snake you see is a moccasin. Two worth watching for are the everglades rat snake and the indigo snake, both handsome and entirely harmless to man. The former is a constrictor, feeding mostly on rodents. The indigo is one of our longest snakes—sometimes reaching more than 100 inches—and now in danger of extinction.

Ordinary caution and alertness when walking on trails is advisable; but keep in mind that the snakes are not aggressive, and that as part of the web of life in the park they are given protection just as are birds and mammals.

Of those close relatives of snakes, the lizards, the Florida anole is most commonly seen. This is the little reptile sold at circuses as a “chameleon”; it is quite unlike the true chameleon of the Old World. The so-called “glass snake”—which got its name from its defensive maneuver of dropping off its tail (which is longer than the rest of its body) and from its snakelike appearance—is actually a legless lizard. The lizards, like the smaller snakes, are primarily insectivorous.

The park’s amphibians, too, are quite inconspicuous. The voices of frogs and toads during the breeding season, however, are part of the Everglades atmosphere. You will enjoy the nocturnal serenade at egg-laying time—and it is quite possible to learn to identify species by their songs, which are as distinctive as those of birds.

The green treefrog, with its bell-like, repeated “queenk-queenk-queenk” call, is abundant, and can be seen and heard easily during the breeding season, particularly at Royal Palm Hammock and on the Anhinga Trail.

The cold-blooded vertebrates, including fish, amphibians, and reptiles, play a significant role in the balance of life in the park, feeding upon each other and upon lesser animals and in turn being food for larger predators such as herons, hawks, raccoons, and otters.

Fishes

“Fishing Reserved for the Birds,” says the sign at the beginning of the Anhinga Trail. Actually, the catching of fish in the fresh waters of the park is an important activity not only for herons, anhingas, grebes, and ospreys, but also for raccoons, mink, turtles, alligators ... and bigger fish. Not surprisingly in the drowned habitats of Everglades, even the smallest fish are important in the web of life.

One tiny species, the gambusia, is of special interest to us. This 2-inch fish is credited with helping keep down the numbers of mosquitoes by feeding upon their aquatic larvae. This accounts for its other name—mosquito fish—and for its popularity with humans. But its services to us are not the measure of the gambusia’s importance, for it is a link in many food chains in the park’s brackish and fresh-water habitats. Beginning with algae, we can trace one such chain through mosquito larvae, sunfish, and bass, to end with the alligator. We can only guess at the extent of the ecological effects of the loss of a single species such as the little gambusia.

The larger fish of Everglades are the most sought after. Sport fishermen want to know where to find and how to recognize the many varieties of game fish, especially largemouth bass and such famed salt-water and brackish zone species as tarpon, snook, mangrove snapper, and barracuda. Because of its cycles of flood and drought, and the shifting brackish zones, however, the distribution and the numbers of fish fluctuate greatly in the glades and mangrove regions. At times of drought, the fish concentrations are particularly evident. In mid- or late winter, sloughs that are no longer deep enough to flow, pools, and other standing bodies of water will have a myriad of gambusia, killifish, and minnows. Larger fish seek the sanctuary of the headwaters of the Harney, Shark, and Broad Rivers. At such times concentrations of bass may be so great that the angler may catch his daily limit in a few hours. (There are no legal limits for the herons and ’gators!)

As water levels continue to fall, salt water intrudes farther inland; such species as snook and tarpon move up the now brackish rivers, and may be seen in the same waters as bluegills and largemouth bass.

In some years water levels drop so severely that concentrations of fish are too great for the habitat to support. As the surface water shrinks, the fish use up the available free oxygen and begin to die. The largest expire first; the smaller fish seem less vulnerable to depleted oxygen supply. Even though many tons of fish may perish in such a die-off, a few small specimens of each variety survive to restock the glades when the rains return.

With no cold season when fish must remain dormant, and with a year-round food supply, bass and sunfish grow rapidly and reach breeding size before the next drought.

These fish kills are associated with drought conditions that occur in the ordinary course of events, and thus are natural phenomena not to be considered ecological disasters. But man’s violent upsetting of the drainage patterns of south Florida, through airport, canal, and highway construction and other developments, can bring about such drastic shortages (or even surpluses) of water that irreparable damage could be done to the ecology of Everglades aquatic communities.

While fish watching may not be the exciting sport that bird watching is, you are the loser if you ignore this part of the life of Everglades. Fish are so abundant in the park that no one has to haul them in on a line to discover them. You can hardly miss spotting the larger fresh-water forms if you take the trouble to look down into the sloughs, ponds, and alligator holes.

Identifying the species of fish, however, is more difficult. The voracious-looking Florida spotted gar is an exception. This important predator on smaller fishes, which is in turn a major item in the diet of the alligator, is quite easily recognized. Experienced anglers will spot the largemouthed bass and the bluegill sunfish. You’ll see these and others as you walk on the Anhinga Trail boardwalk.

As you watch alligators and other native Everglades predators, you may get an inkling of how important in the web of life are the prolific fish populations of the sloughs, marshes, swamps, and offshore waters of the park.

Animals without Backbones

Insects are the most noticeable of the park’s invertebrates. (At times you may find your can of repellent as important as your shoes!) In all the fresh-water and brackish environments, insects and their larvae are important links in the food chains—at the beginning as primary consumers of algae and other plant material, and farther along as predators, mostly on other insects. Some insects are parasites on the park’s warmblooded animals (including you).

The invertebrates most sought by visitors are molluscs—or rather, their shells. You may find a few on the beach at Cape Sable, but don’t expect to find the park a productive shelling area. Stick to marine shells—_dead_ ones. You cannot collect the fresh-water molluscs. Also protected are the tree snails of jungle hammocks. Famed for their beauty, these snails of the genus _Liguus_, which grow to as much as 2½ inches in diameter, feed upon the lichens growing on certain hammock trees. Look for them—but leave them undisturbed, for they are a part of the community, protected just as are the park’s royal palms and its alligators.

BIG CYPRESS INDIAN RESERVATION FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLE INDIAN RESERVATION DANIA INDIAN RESERVATION SCATTERED MOUNDS THROUGHOUT SHARK VALLEY RUSSELL KEY TURNER RIVER LOPEZ RIVER HOUSTON RIVER MORMON KEY GOPHER KEY JOHNSON MOUND FARM CREEK MOUND EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK MONROE LAKE EAST CAPE MOUNDS _GULF OF MEXICO_ _FLORIDA BAY_ _ATLANTIC OCEAN_ Indian Mounds Indian Villages Big Cypress Swamp Mangrove Swamp Pine Rockland Coastal Prairie Everglades

INDIANS OF THE EVERGLADES

Your first awareness of the south Florida Indians will probably come during a trip along the Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41, the cross-State highway just north of the park). You will notice clusters of Indian homes close to the road. Some are built on stilts, are thatched with palm fronds, and are open-sided so that no walls hamper the flow of cooling breezes. Many of the glades Indians prefer to live as their ancestors did some 150 years ago when they were newcomers to the everglades. Others have adopted the white man’s dwellings (as well as his occupations).

The Indians of south Florida—Miccosukees, sometimes called “Trail Indians”; and Muskogees, the “Cow Creek Seminoles”—are separate tribes, not sharing a common language. Today no Indians live inside the park boundaries.

The Indians arrived in Spanish Florida after the American Revolution. Many Creeks of Georgia and Alabama, crowded by the aggressive white man, fled south to the peninsula. They first settled in north Florida; when Florida became a State in 1845 they had to retreat farther south. Driven into the interior during the Seminole War of 1835, they eventually settled in the everglades, where deer, fish, and fruit were available. Though their territory is now much more limited, they still retain much of their independent spirit, and have never signed a peace treaty with the U.S. Government.

Many earn their living operating air boats, as proprietors and employees of roadside businesses, and in a variety of jobs on farms and in cities. The women create distinctive handicraft items, which find a ready market with tourists.

No one is certain when the first Indians—the Calusas and Tequestas—appeared in south Florida; it may have been more than 2,000 years ago. Even more than today’s glades Indians, these coastal Indians lived with the rhythm of river and tides, rain and drought. Hunting, fishing, and gathering of shellfish were their means of existence. We have learned this much of their life from artifacts unearthed from the many Indian mounds or washed up along the beaches. They lived on huge shell mounds, made pottery, used sharks’ teeth to make saws, and fashioned other tools from conch shells. They even built impoundments for fish—a few remains of these can be seen today. They were ingenious hunters. (Ponce de León and his Spanish explorer-marauders were said to have been turned back from the everglades by the deadly arrows these Indians fashioned from rushes.)

Following the arrival of the Spanish, these early Indians disappeared from the scene. They were apparently wiped out, destroyed by the white man’s diseases as much as by his aggression; but some may have escaped to Cuba. Perhaps a handful of them were still in the everglades when the Creeks came down from the north in 1835, and were absorbed into the new tribe. Their known history ends here.

Proud, independent, and ingenious in wresting a living from the land and the water, the Indians knew how to live with nature. Unlike the white man, they fitted into the plant-and-animal communities. Today these communities have been severely disrupted. In the few decades that the white man has been “developing” the region, he has broken every chain of life described in this book.

Alligator populations have been much reduced in south Florida; their chief prey, the garfish, has in some places become so numerous as to constitute a nuisance (most of all to the fresh-water anglers, some of whom had a hand in the killing of alligators). The pattern of waterflow over the glades, through the cypress swamps, and into the mangrove wilderness has been altered by highways and canals. Much of the habitat has been wiped out by construction of homes and factories and by farming operations. An increasingly alarming development is the pollution of glades waters by agricultural chemicals.

Only through complete understanding of this fragile, unique subtropical world can man reverse the destructive trend. Only through carefully applied protective and management practices can we make progress toward restoring to the Everglades some of its lost splendor.

Appendix

Glossary

ALGAE: (pronounced “AL-jee”) A group of plants (singular: ALGA, pronounced “AL-ga”), one-celled or many-celled, having chlorophyll, without roots, and living in damp places or in water.

BRACKISH WATER: Mixed fresh and salt water. Many species of plants and animals of marine and fresh-water habitats are adapted to life in estuaries and coastal swamps and marshes, where the water varies greatly in degree of salinity. Some animal species can be found in all three habitats.

BROMELIAD: A plant of the pineapple family. Many bromeliads are air plants, growing (not parasitically) on the trunks and branches of other plants, or even, as in the case of “Spanish moss,” on telephone wires.

COMMUNITY: The living part of the ecosystem; an assemblage of plants and animals living in a particular area or physical habitat. It can be as small as a decaying log, with its variety of mosses, insect larvae, burrowing beetles, ants, etc.; or as large as a forest of hundreds of square miles.

DECIDUOUS TREES: Trees that shed their leaves annually. Most hardwood trees are deciduous; some conifers, such as larches and baldcypresses, are deciduous.

ECOLOGY: The study of the relationship of living things to one another and to their physical environment.

ENDANGERED: A species of plant or animal that, throughout all or a significant portion of its range, is in danger of extinction.

ENVIRONMENT: All the external conditions, such as soil, water, air, and organisms, surrounding a living thing.

ESTIVATION: A prolonged dormant or sleeplike state that enables an animal to survive the summer in a hot climate. As in hibernation, breathing and heartbeat slow down, and the animal neither eats nor drinks.

ESTUARY: The portion of a river or coastal wetland affected by the rise and fall of the tide, containing a graded mixture of fresh and salt water.

EVERGLADE: A tract of marshy land covered in places with tall grasses. (In this book, “the everglades” refers to the river of grass; “Everglades” refers to the park, which contains other habitats besides everglades.)

EXOTIC: A foreign plant or animal that has been introduced, intentionally or unintentionally, into a new area.

FOOD CHAIN: A series of plants and animals linked by their food relationships, beginning with a green plant and ending with a predator.

HABITAT: The place where an organism lives; the immediate surroundings, living and unliving, of an organism. The habitat of the pine warbler is the pinelands; the habitat of an internal parasite of this bird is the body of the warbler.

HAMMOCK: A dense growth of broad-leaved trees on a slightly elevated area, not wet enough to be a swamp. In the park, hammocks are surrounded either by pineland or by marshland (glades).

HARDWOOD TREES: Trees with broad leaves (as opposed to conebearing trees, which have needles or scales). Most hardwood trees are deciduous, though many in south Florida retain their leaves throughout the year.

KEY: A reef or low-lying island. In south Florida, the term “key” is often also applied to hammocks or pinelands, which occupy areas where the limestone is raised above the surrounding wetlands.

LIMESTONE: A sedimentary rock derived from the shells and skeletons of animals deposited in seas, and consisting mostly of calcium carbonate. Soluble in water having a slight degree of acidity, it is often characterized by caverns and, in the everglades, by a very pitted surface. The rock underlying most of the park is the Miami Oölite (pronounced OH-uh-lite), formed during a recent glacial period. Oölitic limestone is composed of tiny round concretions, only indirectly derived from marine shells.

MANGROVE: Any of a group of tropical or subtropical trees, growing in estuaries and other low-lying coastal areas, usually producing aerial roots or prop roots and often forming dense growths over a large area. In south Florida there are four species, belonging to three different families.

MARSH: A wetland, salt or fresh, where few if any trees and shrubs grow, characterized by grasses and sedges; in fresh-water marshes, cattails are common.

MARL: In this book, used in the sense of a deposit of mixed limestone and smaller amounts of clay; south Florida marls are sometimes called lime muds.

PEAT: Partly decayed, moisture-absorbing plant matter accumulated in bogs, swamps, etc.

PREDATOR: An animal that lives by capturing other animals for food.

SLOUGH: A channel of slow-moving water in coastal marshland. The Shark River Slough and Taylor Slough are the main channels where the glades water flows in the park. Generally remaining as reservoirs of water when the glades dry in the rainless season, they are important to survival of aquatic animals.

SWAMP: Wetland characterized by shrubs or trees such as maples, gums, baldcypresses, and, in south Florida coast areas, mangroves. Fresh-water swamps are usually not covered by water the year around.

THREATENED: A species still present in its range but that, without significant changes in conditions, is capable of becoming endangered.

TREE ISLAND: An island of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants growing on an elevation, in a depression, or at the same level as the surrounding glades. Includes hammocks, willow heads, cypress heads, and bayheads.

For Reading and Reference

Ashton, Ray Jr., and Patricia Sawyer Ashton. _Handbook of Reptiles and Amphibians of Florida._ Vol. 1, _The Snakes_; Vol. 2, _Lizards, Turtles and Crocodilians_; Vol. 3, _The Amphibians_. Miami: Windward Publishing, Inc., 1981-88.

Bell, C. Ritchie, and Bryan J. Taylor. _Florida Wildflowers and Roadside Plants._ Chapel Hill: Laurel Hill Press, 1982.

Cox, W. Eugene. _In Pictures—Everglades: The Continuing Story._ Las Vegas: K. C. Publications, 1989.

Craighead, Frank C. _The Role of the Alligator in Shaping Plant Communities and Maintaining Wildlife in the Southern Everglades._ Maitland: Florida Audubon Society, 1969.

de Golia, Jack. _Everglades: The Story Behind the Scenery._ Las Vegas: K.C. Publications, 1981.

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. _Everglades: River of Grass._ St. Simons Island, Georgia: Mockingbird Books, 1974.

Downs, Dorothy. _Miccosukee Arts and Crafts._ Miami: Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, 1982.

Hoffmeister, John Edward. _Land From Sea: The Geologic Story of South Florida._ Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1968.

Lane, James A. _A Birder’s Guide to Florida._ Denver: L&P Press, 1989.

Peterson, Roger Tory. _A Field Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies._ Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980.

Robertson, William B. _Everglades: The Park Story._ Homestead, Florida: Florida National Parks and Monuments Association, Inc., 1989.

Romashko, Sandra. _The Shell Book._ Miami: Windward Publishing, Inc., 1984.

Stevenson, George B. _Trees of the Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys._ Miami: Banyan Books, Inc., 1984.

Tebeau, Charlton E. _Man in the Everglades._ Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1968.

Toops, Connie M. _The Alligator: Monarch of the Marsh._ Homestead, Florida: Florida National Parks and Monuments Association, Inc., 1988.

Toops, Connie. _Everglades._ Stillwater, Minnesota: Voyageur Press, 1989.

Truesdell, William G. _A Guide to the Wilderness Waterway of the Everglades National Park._ Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1985.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. _Rare and Endangered Fish and Wildlife of the United States._ Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964.

Williams, Winston. _Florida’s Fabulous Waterbirds: Their Stories._ Tampa: Worldwide Printing, 1984.

Zim, Herbert S. _Everglades National Park and the Nearby Florida Keys._ New York: Golden Press, 1985.

Rare and Endangered Animals

Here is a partial list of the rare and endangered species and subspecies found in Everglades National Park and Fort Jefferson National Monument.

Mammals Florida Panther (Cougar) West Indian Manatee (Sea Cow) Birds Snail Kite Southern Bald Eagle Arctic Peregrine Falcon Cape Sable Sparrow Wood Stork Red-cockaded Woodpecker Reptiles and Amphibians Green Turtle Eastern Indigo Snake Hawksbill Turtle Loggerhead Turtle American Crocodile

Checklist of Mammals

More than 40 species of mammals are found in Everglades National Park. Many of them are species commonly associated with drier habitats that have adapted to the semi-aquatic environment that comprises most of the park. It is not uncommon to see whitetail deer wading through the sawgrass prairie or a bobcat foraging for food in a mangrove swamp. This list is made up of species found within the boundary of the park or in the immediate area. Species considered exotic to Everglades National Park are marked with an asterisk (*).

Opossum _Didelphis marsupialis_ Short-tailed shrew _Blarina brevicauda_ Least shrew _Cryptotis parva_ Eastern mole _Scalopus aquaticus_ Seminole bat _Lasiurus seminolus_ Florida yellow bat _Lasiurus intermedius_ Evening bat _Nycticeius hymeralis_ Brazilian free-tailed bat _Tadarida brasiliensis_ Florida mastiff bat _Eumops glaucinus_ Nine-banded armadillo _Dasypus novemcinctus_* Marsh rabbit _Sylvilagus palustris_ Eastern cottontail _Sylvilagus floridanus_ Gray squirrel _Sciurus carolinensis_ Fox squirrel _Sciurus niger_ Southern flying squirrel _Glaucomys volans_ Rice rat _Oryzomys palustris_ Cotton mouse _Peromyscus gossypinus_ Cotton rat _Sigmodon hispisus_ Roundtail muskrat _Neofiber alleni_ Roof rat _Rattus rattus_* Norway rat _Rattus norvegicus_ House mouse _Mus musculus_* Atlantic bottlenosed dolphin _Tursiops truncatus_ Short-finned, or Pilot, whale _Globicephala marcorhyncha_ Gray fox _Urocyon cineroargenteus_ Red fox _Vulpes vulpes_* Domestic dog _Canis familiaris_* Black bear _Ursus americanus_ Raccoon _Procyon lotor_ Coati _Nasua narica_* Everglades mink _Mustela vison_ Long-tailed weasel _Mustela frenata_ Eastern spotted skunk _Spirogale putorius_ Striped skunk _Mephitis mephitis_ River otter _Lutra canadensis_ Florida panther _Felis concolor coryi_ Bobcat _Lynx rufus_ Domestic cat _Felis domesticus_* West Indian Manatee _Trichechus manatus_ Domestic pig _Sus scrofa_* Whitetail deer _Odocoileus virginia_

Checklist of Birds

This is a complete list of the birds known in the park—347 species as of June 1, 1985—along with a key indicating the abundance and seasonal occurrence of each species. As noted in this list many birds are known in the park from only a few sightings. A few are exotic birds that have escaped captivity. Species considered exotic to Everglades Park are marked with an asterisk (*). Users can contribute to updating future lists by carefully recording details of their observations of less common species and reporting that information to park personnel. For purposes of this listing the seasons are as follows:

Spring: March 1 to May 31 Summer: June 1 to July 31 Fall: August 1 to November 15 Winter: November 16 to February 28