Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking Floridians to report all sightings of wild turkeys between now and Aug. 31. This includes hens (with or without poults or young turkeys) and bearded turkeys.

The Florida Wildlife Corridor Act is helping create new opportunities to help the endangered Florida panther, but the species is facing some new and emerging threats including a neurological disorder called feline leukomyelopathy and a number of proposed new developments in Lee and Collier counties. We take a closer look in a conversation with Amber Crooks from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

Passionate defenders of Cape Coral’s burrowing owls are livid now that tractors are clearing debris from Hurricane Ian out of the city’s canals and possibly crushing dozens of owl and gopher tortoise burrows.

To prevent a fatal disease in Florida white-tailed deer, state wildlife managers are asking hunters in Collier, Lee, DeSoto, and Hendry counties to donate the heads of deer they have killed for testing.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will include more than $30 million in the state's 2023 budget to try and figure out why record numbers of manatees are dying in Florida waters. Scientists blame agriculture and development for polluting the rivers where manatees live.

Florida’s diamondback terrapin turtles, which herpetologists believe are the only tortoise in the world who lives in brackish water, must be left in the blend of fresh and salt water that the slowpokes call home. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in December decided diamondback terrapin turtle numbers have dipped enough that the critters need protection to keep any more of them from being scooped up in the wild. Collecting or possessing a diamondback terrapin is now illegal, but there are exceptions: for turtle researchers, for educational displays of the turtles, and for similar conservation-based programs.

Burrowing owls and gopher tortoises have been either discovered on, or been brought to, one of 48 residential lots where nothing will ever be built. These plots of land have been purchased by members of a wildlife group establishing a patchwork sanctuary for the animals throughout the northwestern part of town. Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife has spent about $450,000 total purchasing four dozen plot and are negotiating to buy five more. The 300-member group has amassed the citizen sanctuary since 2002 and focus on burrowing owls and gopher tortoises because they both dig into the ground for protection. Most of the lots are easy-to-dig-in sandy spoil dredged up from the bay bottom when the city was created in the 1950s.

Florida has a growing invasive species population of a reptile that was formally considered a docile pet and is now prohibited by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Florida wildlife officials are clarifying instructions to the public about killing non-native iguanas. A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation...

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wants the public to report all fish kills this summer, when high temperatures and hurricanes...