Wildlife

A program with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, the sea school offers its wildlife education in many ways: to school groups, in camps, in a family setting, and either on a public part of the beach or at the resort where vacationers are staying

Dr. Jerry Jackson is known to WGCU listeners as the creator and host of With the Wild Things, heard weekday mornings at 7:19 and weekday afternoons at 5:18. He’s a professor emeritus of Ecological Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University, and a professor emeritus at Mississippi State University. Nick Penniman is a retired newspaper publisher, and he is chair emeritus of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and a Florida Master Naturalist. He and Dr. Jackson gave a talk together at Florida Gulf Coast University in April as part of the school’s Provost’s Seminar Series titled Getting to Know the World Around You: an Illustrated Conversation” so we had them come by the studio to chat.

Dr. Jerry Jackson is known to WGCU listeners as the creator and host of With the Wild Things, heard weekday mornings at 7:19 and weekday afternoons at 5:18. He’s a professor emeritus of Ecological Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University, and a professor emeritus at Mississippi State University. Nick Penniman is a retired newspaper publisher, and he is chair emeritus of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and a Florida Master Naturalist. He and Dr. Jackson gave a talk together at Florida Gulf Coast University last week as part of the school’s Provost’s Seminar Series titled Getting to Know the World Around You: an Illustrated Conversation” so we had them come by the studio to chat.

The Black Skimmer is a very unusual shorebird – in part because of its exceptionally long, knife-like lower bill and much shorter, slightly-curved upper bill. The knife-like lower bill isn’t for cutting, but for slicing through calm surface waters near shore and in shallow ponds and lakes. When the lower bill strikes a small fish, the fish slides up the bill and the upper bill clamps down on it.

Two groups will occupy the sandy real estate in Southwest Florida this Memorial Day weekend: people and shorebirds. Beneath many of the people will be towels or blankets; underneath many shorebirds will be their next generation. That’s why holiday beachgoers will have a good chance of seeing an Audubon Florida volunteer shooing people away from nesting areas

As court battles continue, supporters of Florida keeping permitting authority for projects that affect wetlands are trying a different tack: Put it in federal law.U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., this week added an amendment to a bill to try to codify a 2020 decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that shifted permitting authority from the federal government to Florida.

No matter how much the world cuts back on carbon emissions, a key and sizable chunk of Antarctica is essentially doomed to an “unavoidable” melt, a new study found.

What a different year 2022-2023 has been for SWFL Eagle Cam eagles Harriet and M15 and eaglets E21 and E22. A special Gulf Coast Life on Monday will take a look back at the season.

The proposed new conservation area, if approved, would be woven together in the same public and private fashion that created the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area established a decade ago.

Southwest Florida Eagle Cam has been livestreaming an intimate view of a North Fort Myers eagle’s nest since 2012. But with female eagle Harriet missing since February 2 after her two chicks hatched, the future of the eagle family is uncertain. Southwest Florida Eagle Cam co-founder Ginny Pritchett McSpadden joins us with an update on the the nest.