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blue atala butterfly

The Atala Butterfly and the Coontie Plant: A Mutualistic Relationship

By Melinda Schuman | Conservancy Biologist The coontie (Zamia integrifolia) is the only native North American cycad and we are fortunate to have it growing in southwest Florida. Cycads belong…

GoToShell

Smith Preserve teeming with life

The seven-acre Christopher B. Smith Preserve at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Nature Center consists of primarily scrub habitat and a restored wetland pond. A natural upland and scrub habitat,…

Python Web

Conservancy captures most massive Burmese python in Florida

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has announced record-breaking developments in its invasive Burmese python research program with the documentation of the largest python found to date in Florida. The female…

Loggerhead On Beach

Celebrating 40 years of sea turtle research

With nesting season underway, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Sea Turtle Research and Monitoring Project is celebrating its 40th Anniversary.

Leaf3

How leaves shaped the world

Leaves are the solar-powered food factories of the world. Beautiful, compact, and complex, without them the world would be a very different place indeed.

Storm over the Gulf of Mexico

Sea turtle nesting: Ways you can help

How often, alone, do we expose ourselves to the midnight hour? To the boundary of civilized and savage? A ribbon of sand between the tame and turbulent, the known and…

Mangroves at sunset

A Mangrove Misunderstanding: Silent Guardians of the Coast

Read just about anything on mangrove forests and you’ll quickly learn how incredibly important these ecosystems are to all forms of life around them. However, it’s precisely the way they deliver this litany of benefits that can make them such a nightmare to walk through. These forests are the ultimate test to your depth of field, troubling even the most nimble of us, and oftentimes, while I myself stumble about; I entertain visions of James Bond attempting a “high speed” chase through here.

Team member on the beach with a large female nesting sea turtle

40 years of sea turtle research

As we approach the 40th Year of the Conservancy’s sea turtle program, it is fitting to look back and reflect on its humble beginnings. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Sea…

Cane Toad Banner Square

Mourning Dove and Eastern Bluebird Found in Diet of the Non-native Cane Toad

Written and researched by Schuman, M.J., S.L. Snyder, C.H. Smoak, and C.J. Dove. Published in Southeastern Naturalist 2021. Copyright: The publisher, Eagle Hill Institute reserves the copyright to all its…

Cuban Treefrog

Tentative Times for Treefrogs

By Melinda Schuman | Biologist Humans have undoubtedly had an impact on the land in Florida. Occasionally the history of an area and how humans have interacted with it gets…