After a record 17-foot Burmese python carrying 87 eggs was caught in Everglades National Park Monday the Nature Conservancy reminds residents and visitors it has a 24-hour response team in ten counties including Collier, Hendry and Glades. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service knows so little about Eastern Indigo snakes, it doesn’t even know how to protect them.  So it’s paying university researchers in Fort Myers to track several snakes before and during Everglades Restoration.  They aim to find out more about how the federally threatened species adjusts to the construction and maybe eventually they can develop a recovery plan.

A 12th Florida panther has been killed in the state this year. A 1 and a half to 2 year old uncollared male was found dead on State Road 80 about 14 miles east of Interstate 75 in Lee County today/Wednesday. It had been hit by a vehicle. It was taken to The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Naples office. It will eventually be taken to the agency’s Wildlife Research Lab in Gainesville for a necropsy. The remains will be archived at the Florida Museum of Natural History. It was the fifth panther killed by a vehicle this year. Co-director of the Nature Conservancy Doria Gorden said she believes the highest rate of mortality comes from vehicle strikes.

Charlotte County is moving forward with what could become the state’s first County-wide habitat conservation plan for the threatened Florida Scrub Jay.  WGCU’s John Davis reports, public comment is being sought now as the next step in implementing the conservation effort.

Many of you may drive past road kill on your daily commute, but does anyone wonder about the impact our tires may have on animal populations? One former FGCU student does. He’s been gathering information about the road kill on campus. WGCU’s Jenny Bechtold walked with him one morning as he conducted his survey.

The Center for Biological Diversity and the Turtle Island Restoration Network filed an official intent to sue the Obama administration in mid-April over a lack of critical habitat protection for loggerhead sea turtles.

New research on manatees indicates that despite poor vision, the endangered marine mammal’s hearing is actually quite good. The study from Mote Marine Laboratory finds that the range of pitches manatees can hear falls both within and above the spectrum of human hearing even into the supersonic range.

Even when background noise was added to simulate an actual marine environment; sounds like boat noise should be easy for manatees to detect. Yet so far this year, 29 have died in Florida due to encounters with watercraft, which begs the question, ‘If manatees can hear boats coming, why don’t they get out of the way?’

Chad Knight of Punta Gorda killed this 12.5-inch lionfish Sunday less than one mile off Cayo Costa.

The spearing of a 12-inch lionfish on Sunday by a fisherman less than a mile off Lee County’s barrier island Cayo Costa appears to signal the inevitable arrival of the non-native pest.

At least four loggerhead turtles have laid nests in the last week on Southwest Florida beaches, ahead of the May first start of official nesting season when lighting ordinances go into effect and monitoring begins.

State wildlife officials will soon do their annual manatee census.  It’s done in winter because the endangered marine mammals congregate in large numbers in warm water outflows from springs and power plants when the weather turns cold.  Now in addition the counting the animals – they’re doing genetic sampling. READ MORE