Florida Wildlife

Alligators are the number one fear that new hikers to Florida have.  True, they’re at the top of our food chain. But I’ll take an alligator stretched across the trail over a grizzly any day. The good news:  alligators are rarely a threat to humans, unless they’ve been fed and associate you with a food [...]

A subspecies of the Eastern black bear, the full-grown Florida black bear rarely tops 350 pounds, and will quickly move out of your way if it sees or hears you.  That is, of course, unless the bear has already been hanging around a campground or trailhead raiding the garbage, which is true for the bear [...]

The most common turtle you’ll see basking on logs along rivers and lakes, the Florida cooter is one of Florida’s largest freshwater turtles, up to a foot long or more. Its dark, rounded shell often becomes coated with green algae from the river.

A subspecies of cougar, the Florida panther has been making a slow but steady comeback in their stronghold in Big Cypress and the Everglades, with sightings of individual cats reported by hikers throughout the state in places as disparate as the Cross Florida Greenway and Osceola National Forest. While wildlife officers won’t confirm that panthers [...]

Especially in fall, you’ll encounter these massive spiders stringing sticky yellow webs everywhere – including right across the hiking trails. That’s why I carry a hiking stick for much of the fall, to keep the spiders out of my face. Attentiveness helps too, since the webs and spiders are large enough to spot ahead of [...]

Florida has four species of venomous snakes: Cottonmouth (also called water moccasin), an aggressive snake that prefers swampy areas. Rattlesnake (diamondback, timber, and pygmy), which can be found in upland or swampy areas. Southern copperhead, found in the northern forests of Florida. Eastern coral snake, found throughout the state. Small and colorful, their banding is [...]