If you have ever been fishing, diving or boating in the coastal waters off Florida’s coastline and noticed a sea turtle, odds are it was a Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas).  Despite its name, green turtles are typically more of a olivey-brown than green, its name originating from the greenish hue found in the turtle’s fatty tissues.  Green turtles are recognized to exist in four distinct life stages: Hatchling, Juvenile, Subadult and Adult.  Ranging in size from hatchlings that weigh 1 ounce to adults that can weight up to 500 lbs, green turtles change in appearance as the grow. 

In the early 1900s, wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) populations declined significantly throughout the United States, due to habitat destruction and unregulated subsistence hunting.  As late as the Great Depression, fewer than 30,000 wild turkeys remained in the entire United States. Early restoration efforts focused on releasing pen-raised birds, but efforts were met with extreme disappointment due to poor survival rates among the pen-raised birds. This approach hampered the wild turkey's comeback for nearly two decades.  It took the creation of the cannon net before wildlife agencies could successfully begin restoration of wild turkey populations by trapping and transferring large flocks of wild turkeys to areas of suitable habitat.  Wild turkeys currently occupy 99 percent of suitable habitat in North America. Today more than 7 million birds can be found throughout North America thanks to the efforts of state, federal and provincial wildlife agencies, the NWTF and its members and partners.

The elusive Florida bonneted bat (Eumops floridanus) occurs nowhere in the world but south Florida, and is believed to have the most limited geographic distribution of any species of bat in the U.S.  However, so little is known about these bats that even the size of the species range is uncertain! 

The bonneted bat is Florida’s largest Chiropteran species, with a wingspan of up to 20 inches.  (To put this in perspective, most of Florida’s bat species have a 10-12 inch wingspan.)  The ears of these bats are broad and forward-facing, giving their heads the appearance of a bonnet.