Florida Spring Break '07

I spent this year's Spring Break in Florida, a state I had never visited. While thousands of people flock to Florida during Spring Break for a week of drunken debauchery, I was there with a group of friends for acompletely different purpose: To herp!

With most of the state seeing warm temperatures year round, Florida is great for reptiles and amphibians. "Great" in that the state is home to many awesome native species, but also "great" in a bad way. Because of its temps and its function as a major port for importing and exporting, Florida has also become home to many exotic species including species of birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and plants. In fact, exotic species outnumber native species in many places in Florida. Most of our group was herpers, but also conservationally-aware people: We liked catching the exotics that we saw, but we were also upset by their abundance and what that potentially means for native wildlife.

Our trip (very long car trip, by the way) first saw us in Apalachicola National Forest in the panhandle of Florida. You might think of Florida as beaches and swamps, but the panhandle is mostly conifer forest. We knew upon entering Florida that we were going to be exhausted from the drive and there was a chance for some cool herps in the panhandle (scarlet kingsnakes, glass lizards, and eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, to name a few), so we decided to rest there, camping in the forest. Here we saw southern cricket frogs* (a new species for me), a few common lizards, a few water snakes, and alligators in virtually every body of water.

Apalachicola National Forest

Southern cricket frog

American alligators in a roadside canal

From the panhandle, we drove south to Gaspirilla Island in Lee County. We drove overnight to reach a beach access point that 2 of my friends had visited in a previous trip. They had seen some cool herps there, so we were all up for them leading us back. All along the sand dunes at the edge of the beach were burrows being used by a large exotic lizard species, the black spinytail iguana. Try as we might (from the areas we were allowed on) we couldn't catch the iguanas, who fled across the sand at breakneck speed. Some of the adults were huge, pushing 4 feet in length. We also saw a gopher tortoise* (a native) in a burrow. Gopher tortoises are so protected that we probably weren't even supposed to look at him, but we did...but that was all! By finding the gopher tortoise, I had seen every native tortoise species in the United States (including the Texas tortoises that were prevalent on my research study site in south Texas, and desert tortoises in the southwest). There's one other native tort in North America, but that will require a trip into Mexico (Bolson's tortoise). At the beach, we also caught a southeastern five-lined skink*, another new species for me, a southern black racer, and another exotic species, the brown anole.

After the beach, we drove to Florida City, where our hotel would be our base of operations for the rest of our time. That night, we did some road cruising in the city and found several species. Near a tree nursery, we caught 3 cane toads (AKA marine toads), and exotic species. At lighted billboards and entrance gates to condos, we found tropical geckos, Cuban treefrogs, and more brown anoles...all exotic species. We did find a few natives too though. Most noteworthy being my first corn snake*.

Cane toad

Cuban treefrog

Corn snake

Having been there before, my friends knew a few urban places that were good for exotics. The next morning, we visted a hotel in Doral and found bark anoles, giant ameivas, and more brown anoles. The ameivas are like giant versions of our native whiptail lizards. It blew my mind to see such a large lizard, in fairly plentiful numbers, persisting in nothing more than the landscape shrubs around a hotel. A had a noose pole with me (explained later), but the best way to catch the ameivas for us was to coral them with several people, diving at them as they tried to escape the circle.

Bark anole

Giant ameiva

The next stop took us into the keys, at a place called Crandon Garden on Key Biscayne. Crandon Garden was apparently a small zoo at one point, as evidenced by cages and pit enclosures. Now it's just a city park near the beach where people come to walk trails or feed the birds. Of course, we came to herp. This was another place my friends had already been to, so we knew it would be a good stop. Having some idea of what species to expect, I brought my noose pole. A noose pole is simply a fishing pole with a noose tied at the end for herping purposes. Many lizards are hard, if not impossible, to catch on foot. However, for some reason, most don't mind you poking at them with a stick...or fishing pole. My noose pole is a 10-foot telescoping fishing pole with no reel or eyelets. At the end of such a pole, you can tie a slip noose or snare with dental floss or string (so as not to cut the target animal), reach out to a lizard with the pole, slip the noose over its neck, and gently pull towards yourself, catching the animal. A friend can then run to the end of the pole to secure the suspended catch. For exotic herps at the gardens, we saw huge green iguanas that snapped my dental floss noose without even trying (5+ feet), Sonoran spinytail iguanas (which were easily caught by noose), a Puerto Rican crested anole that we shook from a tree, and a brown baslisk (also noosed). I had seen Sonoran spinytail iguanas at yet another non-native site (see "The Big A-Z" post), but hadn't had an opportunity to catch them. The Brown Basilisk was a very cool find. Both of the aforementioned iguanas and brown basilisk were plentiful along a watercourse that ran through the property. Upon approach, the iguanas would dive into the water from their tree perches, appearing soon thereafter on the opposite bank. The basilisks, on the other hand, have a different means of escape. Basilisks have entremely long hind-foot toes in relation to their body size. This creates enough surface tension on the water to allow the smaller individuals to run across the surface without even a hint of submerging. We got to witness this ability firsthand, one that has earned them the nickname "Jesus" or "Christ" lizards for walking on water, a feat I had only before seen on TV. Along with the numerous exotics, I also got another first in seeing Florida softshell* in the same waterway.

Sonoran spinytail iguana a la noose pole

Puerto Rican crested anole

Brown basilisk

We then headed on to other key islands. On Sugarloaf Key, we found more tropical geckos and Cuban treefrogs (both exotics). On Marathon Key, we found a Greenhouse frog (another exotic). We also saw 2 endangered key deer on our way through the keys, making our way to mile marker zero on Key West. We had dinner in the infamous Margaritaville and in a stroke of irony, one of our party literally "blew out [her] flip-flop", as the song goes, just as we entered. The beaches in the keys were postcard spectacular, with crystal-blue water, palm and cocoanut trees, and fantastic sunsets.

Greenhouse frog

What herping trip to Florida would be complete without visiting Everglades National Park. Along with some great birding in the park, we found some native herps (finally). We saw a Florida cottonmouth and an eastern diamondback rattlesnake* (roadkill, unfortunately).

Florida cottonmouth

Leaving the swamp, we roadcruised highway 41, which I termed "The Road of Death" afterwards. The stretch of the road that we were on was bordered by flooded, swamp field on one side and a man-made water canal on the other. Apparently there is a lot of movement between the two sides because, as my nickname implies, there are tons of dead reptiles and amphibians all over the road. There were the occasional live ones here and there, but every 20 feet or so, we were stopping for another dead frog, snake, or turtle. In amongst the carnage, we found brown snake, brown water snake*, southern leopard frog, Florida redbelly turtle*, Florida green watersnake*, and a pig frog*. The prize find for our last evening in Florida was a black swamp snake*, dead, but in good shape and an extremely cool lifer nonetheless.

My first trip to Florida was a great time and a pretty good herping success, I'd say. Besides, where else can you see roadkill alligator?

*: Indicates a "lifer," a species I hadn't seen before

I highly recommend The Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida to anyone herping in that state.