Hummingbirds Use Sense Of Smell To Make Foraging Decisions: Study

Are you feeling increased stress and anxiety due to COVID-19 related issues? Lavender is one of the best ways to naturally reduce stress and anxiety. Burn a lavender candle, use a few drops of lavender essential oils in a bath, or even use some to mix with lemonade! 

Check out what other people are using lavender for here: https://www.ausnaturalcare.com.au/health/life-style/10-benefits-of-lavender-essential-oil-and-how-to-use-it/

We hope your Thanksgiving was as great as Nelly’s, our resident Turkey Vulture!

Molly, the Loggerhead Musk Turtle

A non-native iguana snuck into the alligator’s enclosure. Luckily for him Wally wasn’t hungry today!

Here is our Executive Director using Big Red, our resident red rat snake, for our virtual education program. One of the SNC’s main missions is to spread environmental education throughout South Florida. We are excited to pivot to a virtual, safe platform. Big Red was just happy to have a warm body to thermoregulate with in this #FloridaCold! 

Monkey Island: Cayo Santiago Imagine an uninhabited island originally set up as a research station. A few monkeys are released there to observe and study. Fast-forward several years and monkeys run the island—no humans allowed. Sound like a science fiction movie? A Planet of the Apes knock-off? Well….in this case, it’s not. This island exists—it’s Cayo Santiago in the Caribbean near Puerto Rico.

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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. 

Writer Beware makes posts on which publishing houses to avoid at all costs, which words to look for and which words to watch out for in contracts, and several other things that will keep you in control and knowledgeable about the publishing process.  I’d suggest reading through the website if you want to avoid getting ripped off, cheated, or scammed.

1 hour of sharks and cold-water fishes lazily swimming about + jazzy lofi hip hop to relax/study/work to!

Who is the Sawgrass Nature Center?

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Sawgrass Nature Center, we wanted to provide to you a summary of who we are and what we do.

The Sawgrass Nature Center & Wildlife Hospital (SNC) is a non-profit organization that has been providing environmental education and wildlife rehabilitation for the residents of our community for the past 25 years. The SNC was founded in 1995 on a philosophy of environmental stewardship and the belief that humans were meant to preserve and care for the environment and its wild inhabitants. Our main mission goals are:

Educate the public about Florida’s native and unique wildlife

Rehabilitate and release in-need native wildlife that is brought to our center

With the belief that education and compassion go hand-in-hand, we hope that our educational programs which are designed to entertain and educate both children and adults will lead to respect for our native animals and knowledge of the important roles they play in nature.

Our center also provides care for over 850 in-need native animals annually through our onsite wildlife hospital. Residents of Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade County have been bringing injured, orphaned, or sick native wildlife to SNC for the past twenty-five years. We continue to be the only place in northwest Broward County that offers this service.

Unfortunately, not every animal once rehabilitated can be released again. Some suffer from permanent injuries that will prohibit their survival in the wild.  These animals are provided a forever home at the Sawgrass Nature Center. They become “animal ambassadors” that help to educate the public about their species and their importance to Florida’s natural environment. Our animal sanctuary exhibits are open to public viewing.

If you are interested in the events and programs that the Sawgrass Nature Center and Wildlife Hospital offers, please consider following us on social media or check out our website, https://sawgrassnaturecenter.org/.