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I admit it. It was an innocent mistake, your Honor. I plead guilty of feeding the wildlife. It’s just my spoiled indoor cats refused to eat the little crunchies of kibble left in the bottom of the bowl. It was no more than a tablespoon worth, but I tossed it onto the ground. I’m sorry. I realized my error when upon return to the scene of my transgression, a giant raccoon was scratching the ground where I had thrown the kibble. This Northern Raccoon (Procyon lotor) looked pretty healthy. Its fur was bushy and there were no obvious scratches. I stood in the shadows of the garage and watched from a safe distance as I didn't want the critter to take offense and come after me. It turned its head toward me. With brown eyes with black fur surrounding its eyes, the raccoon looked like a burglar caught in the act of stealing, in broad daylight no less.  A group of raccoons on the edge of the woods. This black and white photo is vey much how a raccoon would perceive the world since their vision is rendered in greyscale. Urban wildlife is not rare, it’s only difficult to see. Animals stay hidden during the day in nearby natural habitat or in quiet crevices around the home, then come out at night to forage. That’s why we call them night critters. Proof of their work can be seen in the morning as shown by overturned garbage cans and contents strewn across the driveway. My yard is a pretty happy, nutritious place for critters to live. There are lots of native plants and fruit trees, a pond with frogs, crawly insects, small lizards, snakes and nesting birds that all reside there.  This baby raccoon was seen high in a tree, it’s fur was still wet from days of tropical rains.  The base of a hollowed out tree provides a suitable place for a raccoon den. It is best to let wildlife forage naturally, but the crafty raccoon has adapted to begging for food in urban areas. Perhaps this raccoon’s well-nourished state is courtesy of the resort’s kitchen dumpster. My suspicion was confirmed as a result of research conducted at Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge, to see how human activities relating to unsecured trash and feral cat feeding stations, influence the movements of raccoons and possums. They trapped local possums and raccoons, fit them with radio collars and released them in the area where they were captured. Researchers found out a number of these animals with collars would go up to Ocean Reef and eat each night.  Nimble paws and a keen sense of touch helps the raccoon find its food. The raccoon’s scientific name is Procyon lotor, when translated means “washing bear.” When a raccoon wets its paws, the water stimulates the nerve endings and heightens their sense of touch. Researchers had a serendipitous discovery when in September 2022, a GPS collar attached to a possum gave off a mortality signal, which is emitted when an animal goes several hours without moving when it should be active. The signal began moving, and it continued to stop and then move again over the period of a few days. The researchers discovered that a Burmese python was responsible, as it ate the possum and the radio collar was now inside the snake. They changed the focus of the collared raccoon and possum research toward tracking python.  This collared raccoon was known as “Fighter” - he was covered with scars and a truly wild raccoon who never went into people-occupied areas, such as neighborhoods or the waste transfer station. There aren’t many raccoons like him anywhere in the world. Photo by: Mike Cove Since 1995 when the Burmese python arrived in the Everglades, there has been a decline of 85% to 100% of the population of medium sized furry animals such as raccoons and rabbits due to the python. When the python swam 25 miles south to their new hunting grounds in North Key Largo, small furry creatures such as the Key Largo woodrat began disappearing. Camera traps placed inside woodrat nests provided evidence when a python preying on a woodrat was caught on video. Raccoons have few natural enemies other than man, and automobiles kill more raccoon than anything. Luckily for the raccoon urban food resources do allow these mesopredators - medium sized carnivorous animals such as raccoon and possum - to occur at much higher densities than the natural environment supports, which could indirectly help them sustain some of the python pressure compared to that in the Everglades.  An x-ray image of a python taken by researchers in Key Largo shows a GPS collar that had been fitted on a local opossum. Photo by: Kelly Crandall Animal survival success depends on how well they adapt to life with humans. The greatest concern with raccoons is the diseases and parasites they carry. Canine distemper and rabies will kill raccoons, and raccoon diseases can affect unvaccinated pets. The risk of rabies is small. The Monroe County Health Department, whose records go back to 2012, reports there have been no cases of rabies in Monroe County.   Seeing a raccoon out during the day does not mean it is rabid or dangerous. If it is quiet, and few people or dogs are around, it may come out to forage for food. According to the April/May 1988 editions of The Ocean Reef News:
“The fourth case of rabies in two months occurred in Key Largo March 4th, 1988. Two confirmed cases determine whether an epidemic rating is issued. Rabies, or neurotropic rhabdo virus, has been documented in raccoons at mile markers 101, 99 and two cases at mile marker 94, Key Largo. In each case raccoons approached humans during daytime hours acting erratically. Soon after, the animals were found dead and diagnosed in post-mortem as having rabies.” “Monroe County health professionals warn county residents to avoid all wild or unvaccinated animals and this, unfortunately includes squirrels. While many residents possess great affection toward squirrels and their antics, the very treat you present to a squirrel may act as an invitation to less desirable animals.
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There’s so many critters here in the Florida Keys, I’ve been able to write about a different variety each month. So far I’ve covered those who are feathered, furry, or scaly, from a spectrum of soft bodied insects to mammals, amphibians to birds, with some that slither, run, scurry or crawl and others that sail freely on the wind.   The male Golden Silk spider is a fraction of the size of the female. It’s been educational and enjoyable, photographing and researching each subject. Up till now… my current subject spiders creeps me out. I am not really afraid of them, but I don’t like looking at them either. There’s probably some good reason why at Halloween a lot of decorations depict spiders. Arachnophobia!!  A Cellar spider (Pholcidae sp) was attracted to the moisture in my kitchen sink. When I was five years old, sleepovers at my friend Jennifer’s house were fun, and spiders were part of the excitement. The rarely used room where we slept had pecky cypress wood covering the walls and ceiling. and brown spiders the size of silver dollars hung from webs in the dark, dusty corners. (I guess the spiders were what the monsters ate when they came out from underneath the beds.) Researchers believe we are not born with the fear of spiders, but instead are taught this behavior. Children are curious about spiders, and will capture them and watch how their tiny bodies move via their eight long legs until a parent/teacher intervenes, with the message of “be careful, they bite.“  Southern Black Widow spiders (Latrodectus mactans) are a venomous spider found throughout the Southeastern U.S. Credit: James L. Castner UF All spiders bite, however only two of them in Florida will provoke a strong reaction in humans: the Southern Black Widow spider (Latrodectus mactans) and the Brown Recluse spider (Heteropoda venatoria). According to the Florida Poison Information Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami (1-800-222-1222) if bitten by a Black Widow you will likely experience severe stomach pain, and you should go to the emergency room immediately. The Black Widow received its name from the belief the female spider would kill and consume the male after mating.  Brown Recluse showing “violin” shaped marking. by Jean Woods The Brown Recluse spider is typically found in Central and Southern Missouri… not here. The only documented case in Florida of a Brown Recluse spider bite involved a sailor who was bitten on the hand by a male Brown Recluse in the cargo hold of a naval ship in Jacksonville. The Brown Recluse spider bite causes pain, blistering and frequently necrotic lesions in humans. They are often blamed for mystery bites, wounds and bacterial infections that require treatment with antibiotics— a misdiagnosis by the public and doctors who are not trained in spider identification, nor have seen the spider inflict the bite. There are more than 250 species of spiders in Florida. Around the house, spiders are beneficial insects who consume flying insects, cockroaches and other small domestic pests. In the wild spiders spend their days hiding in leaf litter, and under debris, and emerge at night to hunt. They also spin elaborate webs in clearings to catch flying insects who cannot see the webs until they are ensnarled. Once in their web, the spider bites it’s victim and a small amount of venom is used to immobilize the insect, then dissolve it into a “smoothie” for the spider to ingest as they cannot eat solid food. A spider may bite a human if held or pinched; the bite may hurt for a while but quickly goes away and is much less severe than a bee sting.  The Mabel Orchard Orbweaver (Leucauge argyrobapta) has an orange and green, almost metallic colored body. I have a general rule when walking in the woods: always go with someone else, and let them lead the way. This is because my attention is usually behind the camera lens and I have a bad habit of walking into spider webs. The two methods people use to avoid walking into spider webs are (1) Carry a long stick to brush away webs in the path, (2) Avoid disturbing the web by walking around it. The second method respects the spider’s efforts making a web which is light, elastic and stronger than steel, and is how the spider, who may have poor eyesight, senses vibrations from their prey, as the web acts as an extension of their sensory system.  This Ghost spider (Genus Habana) was hiding among the leaves in a fruit tree. Most spiders have eight eyes and eight legs. and come in a multitude of colors and can be patterned. Some have tiny hairs on their legs that can sense electric charges around plants or the movement of air emitted from a flying insect’s wings. Not all spiders spin webs, and those that don’t, rely on their better eyesight to capture prey.
Pest control is a choice, and my preferred method is preventing a bite by wearing gloves while working where spiders may be found, and shaking out shoes that haven’t been worn recently before putting them on. You can deter spiders by turning off outside lights at night, so not to attract flying insects, a spider’s preferred food. Realize that proper identification of the spider is the first step, and if the spider is beneficial, let it be. Although I espouse the principles of planting for wildlife, I always seem surprised when it actually works. Wildlife need food, water, cover and a place to raise their young in order to live. Though there’s little in this world I can control, there’s an opportunity to make a difference when we plant for wildlife.  A common misconception about possums is that they hang by their tail. This possum is perched on a thick branch of a Wild Tamarind (Lyceloma) tree. Though sometimes I may put a handful of sunflower seeds on the “seed table” for the resident cardinals or blue jays, I don’t feed the critters. I do make sure my planting choices and practices are compatible with the needs of our native creatures. The best thing you can do to attract wildlife is plant native plants and they will come.  Side view of the possum shows one of its 50 teeth, more teeth than any other mammal in N. America. Critters can be pretty sneaky. Case in point: the gardener picked a ripe avocado and put it beside his lunchbox only to return to find it had disappeared. Hmmm? He assumed I had picked it up. I had not. A short while later we opened a storage box and there was movement and I screamed (of course), as I’ve never become accustomed to actually seeing wildlife in my yard, and an enormous possum crawled out. It must’ve weighed 15 pounds! It had been the culprit that stole the avocado, and by the looks of things may have consumed many more. The possum just lumbered off when it saw us.  Not sure if the possum cared that I was photographing it. Maybe it couldn’t see me or was just used to my presence? My thought is there’s enough here for both of us, and I don’t mind sharing some fruit or produce from my garden. One morning in January while surveying the yard, looking for ripe fruit or vegetables, and clearing up any rotting fruit on the ground, I came across what appeared to be a dead possum. It was intact, no appearance of foul play, although I am aware that some homeowners put out bait to kill the rats, so perhaps this critter was an unfortunate secondary victim, since their diet consists of mice and rats… perhaps it ate a poisoned rat. Opossums are nature’s “Sanitation Engineers”. They also eat insects including cockroaches, crickets and beetles, and snails, as well as dead meat.  Sleeping or just sniffing out it’s next insect meal. I picked it up, placed it in a grocery bag, and put it in the trashcan. I didn’t think any more of it. That is until I told the story to a naturalist who asked me if I was sure it wasn’t “Playing Possum”… you know, acting dead to dissuade a predator. A possum will hiss, growl and flash a mouthful of 50 fierce-looking teeth in hopes of scaring a predator. If that doesn’t work they will play dead, since the predator is less interested in dead meat. The naturalist said it’s an involuntary comatose-like state induced by extreme fear, and somehow the opossum’s body knows when the danger has passed. They could not control it, but would “come to” again. Nature’s mystery! Putting it that way, I was not able to say I tested for temperature or life signs. It just looked dead.  Is this possum “Playing Possum” or is it dead? That made my husband Ted remark,”When I die will you make sure you get a second opinion? to make sure I am dead?” He is one of a not so small fraternity / sorority / “e-ternity” of people who have died (for Ted 8 minutes flat-line) and come back to life. People who have had this experience return with glowing stories of family reunions, or a sense of knowing about the glory of the afterlife.  “We discovered a large possum enjoying some scraps outside the front door the other night. We used to have one who came so regularly every evening you could set your watch by him. I do believe that nothing in nature is ugly; however, I must also admit that there are some things that aren't exactly beautiful, and the possum is one them! This particular one was quite tame and would be quite still to be stroked. His coat was as silky and soft as goose down which made him beautiful to touch. Perhaps we lay too much store in believing beauty to be a visual thing, whereas in fact it should involve all the senses.” (January 1980 - TORN (The Ocean Reef News) AN OPOSSUM RESCUE One lucky orphaned possum was adopted by my webmaster Brittney Novalsky, who named it “Paris”, and she raised it from the size of a tiny mouse until 3 years old. Brittney says Paris loved to cuddle, go on bike rides, and had a very special diet to keep her healthy. She drove an hour round trip to get her quail eggs. Though a possum’s life span is a short 3-4 years, Brittney says the experience of knowing love from an opossum was worth it.
The opossum is North America’s only marsupial. Infants stay inside the mother’s pouch to nurse and develop, but if the mother dies while still nursing, her offspring rarely survive. At 7 weeks old, the young leave the pouch but stick close to mom, still nursing and often riding atop her back. |
CAROL ELLIS
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