Reptiles

Sombrero Beach Park, Marathon, Florida Keys

by Barbara Ann Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

Sombrero Beach in Marathon, Florida, may be the quintessential example of a multi-use beach. Am I talking swimming, snorkeling, sunbathing, picnicking, volleyball, barbecuing, and climbing on playground playground equipment? Well, all those things can be done at this beach, but that’s not what I was referring to.

Sombrero is a multi-use beach because humans are not the only ones that use it. Between April and October each year, Loggerhead turtles crawl up onto the beach at night to lay their eggs in the sand. During these months, city workers remove tables and park benches from the beach, nesting areas are roped off, and local officials and volunteers patrol the beach at least once a day to ensure nests are not disturbed. The rest of the year belongs entirely to humans and their canine friends, who are welcome as long as they are leashed (the dogs, not the humans).

With soft white sand, gentle waters, and no crowds, Sombrero Beach is a favorite with locals and visitors.

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Nesting Croc Found in Key Largo Yard’s Mulch Pile

By KEVIN WADLOW kwadlow@keynoter.com

State wildlife officers took a clutch of crocodile eggs from Key Largo into protective custody this week. American crocodiles can make good mothers — but one made a poor nesting choice in the front yard of a Lake Surprise subdivision home, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reptile specialist Lindsey Hord said.

“It was not good spot for a croc nest,” Hord said. “If the eggs hatched, the babies would have been right there on the street.” One baby crocodile has since hatched in captivity and seems to be doing well, Hord said. The future of the remaining half-dozen eggs was uncertain at press time Friday. Two hatchings died in Key Largo soon after they hatched Wednesday. “It could have been stress-related or fire-ant bites,” Hord said. “Just a few ant bites can kill a hatchling, and there were fire ants in the nest.”

The homeowner on Upper Matecumbe Road, off mile marker 106, recently alerted the FWC that a sizable crocodile “was scratching around” a mulch pile in his front yard in what he correctly perceived as nesting activity, Hord said. When the owner was moving the mulch pile earlier this week, he discovered the nest. Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies later observed the protected crocodile, estimated to be 7 to 8 feet long — the minimum size for a breeding female.

“We decided the best thing to do was move the nest,” Hord said. The crocodile was not at the Key Largo property when the nest was removed. The crocodile laid 22 eggs but most had been mortally damaged by the inadvertent yard work or by movements of the mother herself. “The homeowner is tolerant of the croc, which we appreciate,” Hord said. “He just hopes she figures out a better place to nest next time.”

“Alligators are famous for being good mothers,” he said. “Crocs are, too, but a little less so. This one is a good mother, hanging around the nest.” “There were five or six potentially good eggs,” Hord said. “They don’t look great but we’ll give them a few days to see if they hatch out.” The biologist is watching over the eggs at a Broward County site.

Any survivors will be released “into a suitable crocodile habitat,” he said, probably in or near protected waters of the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge on North Key Largo. The crocodile is known as a regular visitor and has nested in the Lake Surprise subdivision previously. The canal used by the leads to the bayside Sexton Cove.

The croc’s remaining eggs have been moved to Broward County. One has already hatched.

Crocs Cleared of Crunching Key Largo Kayakers

State wildlife officials said Wednesday it is “highly unlikely” that a crocodile or alligator attacked two Upper Keys kayakers last month.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officers and biologists have investigated the claim that an American crocodile was responsible for injuring two kayakers during an early morning trip in Sexton Cove in Key Largo, agency spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro said.

The FWC cannot determine what the kayakers encountered, but found no indication of a multiple-tooth bite pattern characteristic of a crocodile or alligator bite, and said the scratches were not consistent with either a bite or the number of toenails on either reptiles’ feet.

It is possible a large crocodile or alligator overturned the kayak in an attempt to flee, but no animal reportedly was seen, Ferraro said.

The kayakers — Leigha Poulson and Mike Gregory — reported hitting something in the water and overturning. While in the water, something brushed against them, leaving them with abrasions and punctures, they said.

American crocodiles, a shy and reclusive animal, are an endangered species success story. Since 1975, their numbers have increased from fewer than 300 to more than 1,500 adults. Today, they are classified as a threatened species.

As the crocodile population has grown, the number of complaints about them has risen, Ferraro said. Conflicts between crocodiles and humans, however, are still very rare. Because crocodiles grow large, people must use caution when near them or recreating in areas where they are found.

Poulson and Gregory reported having their kayak flipped by a large animal they did not see, and neighbors in the area had told them that crocodiles are known to inhabit those waters, he said.

“I landed on something big and hard,” Gregory said. “I felt its tail.”

Gregory didn’t feel a bite, but suffered some kind of puncture wounds, he said.

For more information about living with crocodiles, visit MyFWC.com/Crocodile.

Veterinarian Doug Mader Discusses Iguanas in Keys

Doug Mader of Marathon Veterinary Hospital will be Save-A-Turtle’s guest speaker 7:30 p.m. Monday at The Turtle Hospital, 2396 Overseas Highway,

“Iguanas in the Keys” is the title of the presentation by Mader, who is the consulting veterinarian for the Key West Aquarium, The Turtle Hospital and the Monroe County sheriff’s Animal Farm. He’s had many articles published in scientific and veterinary journals, national magazines and more, and wrote the Saunders publication “Reptile Medicine and Surgery.”

Also there will be author Bonnie J. Doerr, who wrote “Stakeout,” a book inspired by The Turtle Hospital and Save-A-Turtle, whose meetings are 7:30 p.m. the first Monday of the month.

Florida Keys Frozen Iguanas

Video from Jimmie Bernardin

Florida Keys Turtle Hospital Releases Loggerhead Seaturtle

Turtle Hospital officials are planning quite the going-away blowout for one loggerhead turtle that swam up to the docks behind the Marathon-based facility in late March. Florida Keys residents and visitors have been given a public invitation to join in the release of the 73-pound turtle, at 9:20 a.m. Sunday at Veteran’s Park on Little Duck Key, Mile Marker 40.

Dubbed “Kincaid,” the turtle has reached celebrity status, as the release will be televised live on the national “Fox and Friends” show on the Fox network. The turtle’s walk-in appointment turned into a stay of several months while staff veterinarians treated the lumbering reptile for an internal bacterial infection.
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Shooting Iguanas = Jail Time in Big Pine Key

A 40-year-old Big Pine Key man was in jail Monday after he allegedly threatened to kill his wife and fired several shots in his home Saturday night, including one while deputies were present, reports say. Michael David Cristler Jr. of 31357 Avenue C was charged with assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and discharging a firearm.

Cristler denied threatening his wife, saying he was only shooting iguanas, reports say.
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Do You Think the Florida Keys Has an Iguana Problem? Poll

In less than three weeks, state and federal officials have trapped and removed 65 iguanas at Bahia Honda State Park in an attempt to keep the reptiles from decimating a species of vine critical to the endangered Miami blue butterfly. U.S. Department of Agriculture workers who did the trapping for the state have left for a month, but they are leaving traps behind for the Florida Park Service to use, said Ricardo Zambrano, a regional biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “This is going to be ongoing,” Zambrano said. “I don’t think [the recent effort] is going to completely eradicate them.”
Please read the rest of this story and answer a short survey at the end.
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Key Largo Croc on a Ramp

The Spring Break Croc has definitely moved into the neighborhood. I see her in the canal mornings and evenings and she frequently warms up in the boat ramp. She only occasionally gets into the flower bed but moves close to watch/listen whenever I make any noise in the area.

I am purchasing the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder in hopes of capturing both the egg laying and hatching 80 days later.

Stay tuned.

Night of the Crocodile – Caution

The Spring Break Croc was not around when I got home this afternoon. I decided to take this time to add more compost and mulch to the nest site. After about an hour of work I was finished and I hoped the croc would be happy with the results, about an additional 8 inches of rich compost and mulch. It was about 6pm and I checked around the canal bank and she was nowhere in site.

I went back outside just after sunset and saw her near the boat ramp. I went over to the nest site to see if she had been in it, she hadn’t. When I went to take another photo of her at the ramp she had left and I saw her head at the bank next to the nest site. I walked back to that area and was preparing to photo her when suddenly she was ashore. When I say suddenly she was ashore, I am not kidding. She went from fully in the water to fully on land, up a 2 foot high embankment, so fast it almost seemed impossible. If I had been standing on the bank there would have been no way to move away in time.

Talk about a wake up call. I have seen, on TV, plenty of film of Crocs attacking prey on waterway banks and am always amazed at the explosion of motion. Seeing this first hand was fantastic. She obliviously doesn’t simply climb up the canal bank but uses her tail to catapult herself out of the water and onto land. Once she was on land she just sat there motionless for some time. After taking some photos I left her alone for the rest of the evening.