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With the Wild Things
Weekdays @ 7:20 AM

With the Wild Things is hosted by wildlife biologist Dr. Jerry Jackson and produced by the Whitaker Center in the College of Arts & Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Funded by the Environmental Education Grant Program of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, With the Wild Things is a one-minute look at a particular environmental theme.

Dr. Jackson takes you through your backyard, and Southwest Florida’s beaches, swamps and preserves to learn about “the wild things”.

Latest Episodes
  • The European Starling is one of our most obvious exotic species. We see them everyday because we provide them with food and shelter. The next time you are at a stoplight, look around. You are likely to see starlings. Fast food restaurants and snack-providing gas stations are often located at intersections and garbage dumped in open trash bins, or dropped accidentally or on purpose by patrons of those businesses or by drivers getting a snack while the light is red create a smorgasbord for starlings. The convocation of utility wires at intersections also play a role. They provide perches where starlings wait for their next meal. Starlings are social birds and -- especially in late winter and early spring -- starlings can be lined up evenly spaced by the dozens – or hundreds – on the wires.Why are they so evenly spaced? They leave just enough space to allow them to take off quickly without their wings hitting their neighbor while still taking advantage of the body heat of their neighbors.
  • The Northern Mockingbird was long ago selected by school children as Florida’s State bird. That’s not a surprising choice because mockingbirds are conspicuous – both visually and vocally in our yards and parks. Because its diet includes a diversity of insects, spiders, small lizards, and other small animals – as well as a diversity of fruits – our mockingbird is particularly conspicuous. It hunts mostly in open patches of short vegetation – such as our lawns -- and perches in the open to sing. In either situation it often holds its long tail upright, thus minimizing the chances for a predator to successfully attack it from behind. Among its other unique behaviors a Northern Mockingbird regularly flicks its wings open and closed as it moves slowly across open areas. The wings have a large white area both above and below – and when the wings are flicked, the white flash often causes nearby insects to move away – and its wing-flashing provides an opportunity for the mockingbird to seize a meal.
  • About 30,000 species of spiders have been recognized and many more are likely to be discovered. Each has adapted to a specific niche – the habitat it lives in, what it eats, and how it gets its meals. When we think of spiders, we may think of spider webs – but not all spiders build webs. We might also think of the nature of the habitat where and when they are found. Their food, how they obtain it, and the nature of their habitats vary – and it is that variation that has allowed development of the great diversity of spider species.
  • Gumbo Limbo trees are native, commonly seen in south Florida, and easily recognized by their smooth, but peeling red bark – perhaps their defining characteristic. That peeling red bark has given them the another common name: “tourist tree” because it readily reminds one of the skin of a tourist (or local) who has been out in the sun too long. These are hardy trees that occur naturally from south Florida to the Caribbean, Mexico, and northern South America. They their stout trunk and spreading branches also make them a favorite for landscaping, but be aware that their roots are shallow, spreading, and can push up sidewalks and driveways. On this week’s Wild Things I’ll discuss more of Gumbo Limbo’s good and bad characteristics and its links to human culture.
  • Ospreys -- sometimes known as “fish hawks” -- are in a family separate from other hawks and eagles, thus only distantly related to them. As a result of their preferred diet of fishes, they are intimately associated with rivers, streams, lakes, and coastal waters of the world’s oceans. Their food and habitat preferences, have made them intimately associated with humans and Ospreys are found on every continent except Antarctica. Osprey nests are large and sturdy as a result of use of large sticks that build a sturdy frame.
  • Gray Squirrels are our most common squirrels and are with us year round. They can beabundant in cities where there are oaks and bird feeders. They love sunflower seeds and areoften considered a scourge by humans who put out food for birds. Although stores regularly sellbird feeders that are marketed as being “squirrel-proof”, the advertiser has usuallyunderestimated squirrel abilities.
  • Habitats include the physical and biological characteristics of the place where a plant, animal, fungus, or any living creature lives – including the nature of the soil, climate, the amount of the habitat and its configuration. The presence and numbers of such things as competitors, disease-causing organisms, predators, sources of food, water, and nest sites, and safe shelter are important to all life. The extent of their importance varies greatly from species to species and often between sexes and age groups of a species. A habitat can support – or prevent the presence of many species of living creatures.
  • The Northern Flicker is a commonly seen bird across North America – and it is a woodpecker – although one more often seen on bare or mowed ground where it feeds extensively on insects and other ground- or rotted-wood-dwelling insects. Flickers in the East have yellow-tinged wing and tail feathers – those in the west have red-tinged feathers. The two color-morphs meet at the edge of the Great Plains and often interbreed – hence they are considered a single species. This is a woodpecker that is often seen in mowed and bare areas of our towns and cities as well as in the countryside. It is a poor cavity excavator, requiring nest sites with well-rotted wood – or such modern materials as Styrofoam used in trim on our homes. Occasionally it will even nest in a hole in the ground – where it may find “bed and breakfast”. Males are easily identified by their black “moustache”; females lack it.
  • Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) is an invasive exotic aquatic plant that has been in Florida for hundreds of years – perhaps merely as a result of being snagged on or carried in bilge water of early sailing ships traveling between the Amazon River in South America and Florida. Once here – and in other countries around the world, it quickly reproduced and was spread down rivers and streams and even into isolated lakes by boats and individuals who admired its beauty. To this day it has negative impacts on native wildlife, shading swamp waters, thus cooling them and reducing sunlight needed by native plant species, often making it difficult for herons, egrets, Anhingas, and other aquatic animals to find food. If you boat in waters with water lettuce, always check your boat and trailer for plants caught on them. Don’t introduce this plant to waters where it isn’t currently found. In spite of its name.
  • The Double-crested Cormorant is a resident bird in Florida – especially in south Florida. Its numbers swell each winter with migrants from farther north. Cormorants are well-known as fish-eaters, although they also readily consume other small animals. These cormorants are social birds and can often be seen on open water in flotillas of a dozen or more. They typically swim on the surface with head held up and body showing above the surface – whereas their relatives, the Anhingas, typically show only their head and long neck above the water. Double-crested Cormorants have bare bright orange skin around their face, brilliantly blue eyes, and a stout hooked bill that they use to capture fish.