Animal Photoshoot - Blog Posts
My babies!!! 🐱🐱🐱
Shoutout to our volunteers who managed to catch some great pics of a few of the SNC’s permanent residents. Featured is Cory the Red Rat Snake, Leonidas the Bearded Dragon, and one of the blue jays in our aviary.
The reptiles featured here are used as educational ambassadors for their species. That means they’re used by professionals to teach visitors about their ecological roles and niche in the environment and why it is so important to protect their species. Leonidas the Bearded Dragon is used in particular as an example of an exotic species. Both reptiles featured here were surrendered pets that the previous owner could no longer care for. Used to a domesticated life rather than hunting for and sheltering themselves, these animals would not survive in the wild on their own.
This Wildlife Wednesday we are featuring our resident Red Rat Snake. This guy in particular has a permanent stay at the Nature Center due to a degenerative nerve disease that causes him to twitch.
Rat Snakes are non-venomous, constrictor snakes. They also happen to be very skilled climbers, to the point where they have been known to scale brick walls! This helps them catch prey like lizards, small mammals, and hatchlings.
Rat Snakes are popular in the pet trade and have been bred in many different colors and patterns.
This African Spur Thigh Tortoise is named Bubba and he is a permanent resident at the Sawgrass Nature Center. He was previously kept as a pet, but his owners did not realize that he would get this large. And since he is an exotic species to Florida, he is non-releasable.
The African Spur-Thigh is a native species of tortoise to Northern Africa, specifically along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. They dig burrows in the ground to spend the hottest parts of the day in. This is known as aestivation.
Fun fact: The African Spur Thigh Tortoise is the third largest tortoise in the world. Surpassed only by the Galapagos Tortoise and the Aldabra Giant Tortoise.
Great Horned Owls are native to the Americas, with a preference for deciduous, coniferous, forest, and desert habitats. They are carnivores with a diet that includes small mammals, reptiles, and even other owls!
Fun fact: When clenched, a Great Horned Owl’s strong talons require a force of 28 pounds to open.
Our resident owl is with us due to a permanent wing injury that prohibits them from ever flying properly again.
Here’s Wally, our resident American Alligator. Alligators are reptiles, which means they are cold blooded. Cold blooded animals, or ectotherms, rely on the environment to control their internal body temperatures. Unlike humans, alligators don’t have bodily functions to warm themselves up when they are cold.
In order to get warm, reptiles like to sunbathe, just like Wally is doing in this photo. Any Floridian who has seen a gator outside of the water, has probably been witness to the gator trying to warm themselves up too.