WGCU

The Monarch Butterfly with its orange and black wings, and look-alike mimic the Viceroy Butterfly are well entrenched in our educational system from grade school through graduate school. But details of the Monarch’s life and its mimic relationship with the Viceroy Butterfly are not so well known. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed and caterpillars that emerge feed on milkweed leaves. These leaves often provide toxins that protect the butterfly – often, not always. That protective toxin – gained during the caterpillar stage -- can disappear from the butterfly over time because the adult butterfly feeds on the nectar of many different flowers. Milkweeds are popular plants as ornamentals that attract Monarchs. One most prominently for sale is Tropical Milkweed, an exotic species with beautiful red and orange flowers. Tropical Milkweed has become an invasive and lives through Florida winters, building up populations of a parasite of Monarchs that can impair the butterflies. Unlike Tropical Milkweed, most of our native milkweeds die in winter and the monarch parasites die with them.

The Northern Flicker is a woodpecker that is often seen feeding on ants living in the ground or in very rotted wood. Like other woodpeckers, it excavates a nest cavity, but its bill is more adapted for digging for ants than it is for excavating in wood – it is relatively longer and more curved than that of other woodpeckers – to accommodate the long tongue that it uses to secure ants. It may excavate its cavities in very rotted wood, but will also excavate a nest cavity in the ground or in Styrofoam -- such as sometimes used in roof edging.

Fridays are when we enjoy a new weekly series that's part history, part trivia, and ALL music. The series features selections from former News-Press editor Sheldon Zoldan's 'Song of the Day." The initiative began as a daily lockdown project on Facebook at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, through which Zoldan highlights how every aspect of life has a connection through music. This week's Song of the Day, for April 4th, is "Lions" by Skip Marley.

The Northern Mockingbird is one of the most conspicuous and well-known resident birds in Florida. It is well-adapted, for urban and suburban life where landscaping includes an open mix of mowed grass, trees, and shrubs. As a result of its status as a year-round resident, its habitat preferences, conspicuous behavior, and its presence through much of North America, it is no wonder that the school children of Florida selected this species to be our State Bird.

Winter is when many Florida plants become dormant and lose their leaves until spring. In contrast, most of our ferns remain a vibrant green through the winter. This is in part because ferns are plants that live in moist environments and the water buffers them from the cold. A winter visit to a marsh, swamp, or other wetland can be refreshing on a cold winter day in south Florida. While other plants lose their leaves, ferns generally have a more intimate contact with their wet environment. Fern diversity in wet areas can be spectacular – each species occupying a somewhat unique niche, thus minimizing competition with other species.

A mysterious disease is spreading through the already endangered Florida panther population, and dozens of wildlife scientists working to figure out how to stop it before any more of the beloved and endangered species remain crippled from it or die trying to live with it.

Terry Brennen, retired director of community funding for WGCU public media, had been infected with Vibrio vulnificus, a saltwater bacteria carried in storm surge that’s has led to an unprecedented spike in cases in Florida – 65 so far this year – the most since the health department began tracking cases in 2008.

Third annual cleanup event to rally the community to pick up debris along surrounding island shorelines and waterways.

We listen back to our pre-coronavirus pandemic session featuring music performed live in studio by guitarist Max Hatt and vocalist Edda Glass. You can…

To help people deal with stress and other feelings brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, graduate students in Florida Gulf Coast Univerity's Counseling…