Frog-Licking and Other Florida Wonders
May 28, 2015 - Many animal species rely on Florida's longleaf pine savanna ecosystem. Follow herpetologist and former National Geographic grantee Bruce Means as he highlights some of the Florida Gulf Coast savanna's more intriguing inhabitants.
Transcript
Bruce Means
Herpetologist
Florida State University
[00:00] This frog, now you might be disgusted at me doing this but, it has a very noxious skin secretion. If I were to try to mouth it like a predator it would secret a foamy kind of a bitter substance that would maybe make me not eat it.
This is the gopher frog, which is found in longleaf pine environments, when it's rubbed on the back it protects its eyes by throwing its hand up over the top of its eyes. And I'm thinking that's because when it's in a tortoise burrow, and the tortoise comes lumbering down there no place for the frog to go so it protects its eyes by throwing its hands up over the top of them.
[00:47] This is what I call a small example of the magnificence of nature.
[00:52] This is a tract of the Apalachicola forest that they've recently done a prescribed burn on. The longleaf pine ecosystem is extremely rich in species. Up to 150 species per two and a half acres.
[01:13] The Eastern diamondback is the largest of the 30-some species of rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes are only found in the New World, North and South America. The Eastern is the largest of all the rattlesnakes, it can get to about seven feet, and largely have declined all over its range, and the reason is of course, the habitat, the longleaf pine ecosystem which is their main original habitat, has been reduced to less than 2% of its original extent.
[01:48] This is what happens when a longleaf dies from lightning. It slowly burns up eventually over many years. This is where the sapwood was, which is very easily rotted and also eaten by termites, and way down there is where any animal can burrow and get into the soft dirt. This provides protected habitat for so many animals out here.
[02:19] There's a little creature, a nymph of a gigantic roach, palmetto bug. Lot of people don't think too well of roaches, but you know, they're a life form. I'm not gonna do it but if I had nothing else to eat that's probably a pretty succulent little mouthful there. Sans sticky legs, get caught in your teeth.
