Taylor Slough

Transcription

( 'Invisible Wings' song ) ( frogs calling ) ( thunder ) ( 'Kyoto Nights' song ) Ranger: If you have just one hour in the Everglades, Royal Palm is a great place to stop. You can spend as little or as much time here as you would like. Royal Palm is the starting off point for the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail. The Anhinga Trail is one of the premiere wetland trails in the National Park Service. It winds through Taylor Slough and a sawgrass prairie. It offers excellent nature viewing experiences year round, but especially during the winter or the dry season. During the dry season, the alligators and the anhingas are breeding and a shrinking Taylor Slough concentrates the wildlife. You can explore these trails on your own or with a ranger-led program. Ranger: So, to really grasp this landscape, we?ve got to come to grips with a little geology. About a hundred thousand years ago, there was a shallow sea here. It was just three thousand years ago that we would have looked at a map or looked visually at South Florida... ...and might have called it Everglades. This is a brand new landscape. ( alligator bellowing ) Ranger: These alligators will actually make pits out there in the marsh. They will make gator holes. They can be about ten feet wide and four to six feet deep. So they make this habitat for themselves so that they can live and have a place to survive during the winter. Meanwhile, all their favorite foods come to live in the same spot with them. Those are also places where birds come to congregate. And those birds will be able to go on the edges of that gator hole and capture the fish that they need... ...and then roost in the cypress trees right above it. We call them keystone species. They are kind of an architect of the Everglades. ( Green heron calling ) These birds that you see across the way in the Pond apple trees over there are Anhingas. They are nesting here. That's why we call it the Anhinga Trail. Everyone?s favorite spot is the Anhinga Trail because it is where you see the most up close wildlife. And I like to remind people that this is kind of a unique situation that we can get this close to birds and alligators. Typically, these same animals in a part of the park that doesn?t have a trail like this are scared of people. ( camera shutters clicking ) Visitor: You can see him better over here. ( camera shutters clicking ) Visitor: We are actually taking pictures and doing sketches of different parts of the habitat so that... ...when we go back to the classroom, we are gonna mix them up and do a landscape. I am drawing this area here where you see the little bridge. I like the perspective: The diagonals of the bridge, the brownish with yellow, different shades of green. ( 'Kyoto Nights' song ) Ranger: The Gumbo Limbo Trail is a self-guided paved trail winding through a subtropical hardwood hammock... ...a habitat type unique to South Florida. ( Red-shouldered hawk calling ) Visitor: What I saw today, well, a little lizard about that big. He was hiding. He was about the same color as the branch he was sitting on. I saw a couple of small, little birds that would fit in the palm of your hand. They were a kind of blue-gray color. A lot of foliage. A lot of palms and ferny type things... ...that I sure would not see if I went through a walk of native hardwoods in Indiana. It is a good example of successional growth. And what happens to growth after a hurricane. ( 'Kyoto Nights' song ) Ranger: For your trip to Royal Palm and the rest of the Everglades, it is a good idea to bring your own food and water. Additional water is available at the Coe Visitor Center and here at Royal Palm. In addition to the two trails, Royal Palm also has restrooms, vending machines, and a gift shop. Filmmaker: Did you expect to see stuff like this on this trail or are you surprised? Visitor: Yes, but not so much. I didn't think we would see all the Anhingas even though it is called the Anhinga Trail. Was there one thing that stuck in your head? Well, how important the alligators are to the ecosystem. They dig the holes and then all the organisms come live in them in the water. And that they provide food for the gators, bobcats, otters...huge diversity of species. What would you tell visitors that have never been to Anhinga Trail before? Take the guided tour. Speak to a ranger first. And make sure you bring your camera and binoculars! Take advantage of your tax dollars! Yeah, bring binoculars! You can see things without the guided tour, but you find out the background of everything by taking the guided tour. Ranger: For more information on the Everglades, check out our other podcasts or check out the park's main website. ( 'Kyoto Nights' song ) Royal Palm is located about five miles southwest of the Ernest Coe Visitor Center.