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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI14090868/00001
Notes
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Lake Wales Ridge 1
Length of Segment: 00:01:18
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. The back bone of the Florida peninsula is Lake Wales Ridge, formed of old sand dunes and stretching nearly 100 miles long, four to thirteen miles wide, and reaching nearly 300 feet above sea level. Today, most of this ridge is covered with human communities such as Lake Placid near its southern limit, and mile after mile of citrus groves. During global warming more than two million years ago, sea levels were much higher than today and the only dry lands where Florida is today were Lake Wales Ridge and a few other islands. Wave action and warm winds built dunes of sand several hundred feet high. These provided habitats for a diversity of life that clung to existence in a world isolated from mainland North America. Creatures of Lake Wales Ridge survived isolation by adapting to their harsh environment. Creatures such as the Florida mouse, sand skink, Florida scrub jay, and a rare plant known as the Florida ziziphus: creatures found nowhere else in the world have lived for millennia on Lake Wales Ridge. Today, most of these creatures of the ancient dunes are endangered. They struggle with new isolation as their habitats are converted to human uses. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Lake Wales Ridge 2
Length of Segment: 00:01:09
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Richard Archbold was financially wealthy and wealthy in other ways too, a result of friendship with great biologists and participation in global exploration. He left a legacy which we all share, Archbold Biological Station. Archbold Biological Station, south of Lake Placid near the southern end of Florida's Lake Wales Ridge, was founded by Richard Archbold in 1941. The 5,000 acre station is important because it protects and maintains increasingly rare natural communities of the Lake Wales Ridge. But Archbold is much more than a preserve, it's a world-class ecological research center. The emphases at Archbold are on long-term research and education. Carefully designed studies continue through generations of plants, animals, and the researchers who study them. Influenced by the Archbold example and education efforts, additional Lake Wales Ridge habitats are now being protected. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Lake Wales Ridge 3
Length of Segment: 00:01:19
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. A drive down U.S. Highway 27 near Lake Placid, Florida reveals mile after mile of citrus groves, small communities, and occasional patches of scrub. Immediate impression is all too often that it's unproductive land that needs improvement. Little pure scrub is left. Indeed, because it's high and dry, it's prime land for housing developments. By 1990, more than 83% of Lake Wales Ridge scrub had been converted to agriculture or residential development. Today, more than 30% of remaining scrub habitat is in residential areas. The scrub of a Lake Wales Ridge is an arid, desert-like environment. It's desert-like because of the course sugar sand of the old dunes that form the ridge. Water drains through the sand quickly and those creatures that live in this harsh environment have developed unique characteristics that help them survive. Although harsh, the Lake Wales Ridge is also the oldest land around. Many of the plants and animals that live there have become scrub specialists. They have not only learned to cope with the dry sand, the intense summer sun, and frequent lightning-started fires, they have come to depend on them. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Lake Wales Ridge 4
Length of Segment: 00:01:21
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Of Florida's 400 different kinds of birds, only the Florida scrub jay is found only in Florida. The Florida scrub of the Lake Wales Ridge is the oldest of Florida's dry land habitats. It was all that existed of Florida during global warming and higher ocean levels more than two million years ago. The desert-like scrub is a harsh environment and the Florida scrub jay has honed skills to perfection as a citizen of this scrub. The Florida scrub jay depends on acorns, burying many in times of plenty for retrieval in times of scarcity. Many acorns buried are never retrieved, but begin growing, continuing the scrub habitat the birds require. Florida scrub jays have a unique social system: they're cooperative breeders. Scrub jay real estate is rare, so offspring continue to live with their parents paying the rent by helping defend the family territory, and helping raise their parents’ next brood. In good times, the family may be able to claim a large territory, and junior may be able to carve out a corner as his own. Or if a parent dies, he may inherit the old home. In bad times, a family group rather than a single pair is better able to defend limited resources. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Lake Wales Ridge 5
Length of Segment: 00:01:16
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. In the category of creature whose name stimulates the question, “It's a what?!', or that might end up as a creature in a science fiction movie is a skink. A skink is a kind of lizard that has very tiny, very shiny scales, and tiny legs. Skinks are fast-moving and fast-living, eating lots of insects and other invertebrates. The sand skink is an unusual inhabitant of the scrub habitats of Florida's Lake Wales Ridge. This creature has tiny, little-used front legs. Its body is torpedo-shaped as if designed for efficient swimming; it is. It swims through the sands of Florida's scrub. Getting to be about five inches long, the sand skink tucks its front legs into grooves and swims through the sand in search of food. Among its adaptations as a sand-swimmer are transparent eyelids that serve as dive goggles, a lack of external ear openings, a lower jaw protected by an over-hanging upper jaw, and a ridge down each side that works like a keel on a catamaran. Like so many other unique creatures of the Florida scrub, it's threatened by loss of its unique habitat. ( English )
Record Information
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- Resource Identifier:
- FI00900091
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