Category Archives: Creature Features

A few facts, photos, and personal anecdote about a species.

To Move or Not to Move, That’s the Frog’s Question

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Adult Gopher Frog following capture. Photo by Garrett Lawson

Author: Garret Lawson

Habitat alteration is one of the greatest threats facing wildlife species that have specialized food and shelter preferences. Discovering whether—and how—native species use human-modified habitats is an important part of understanding their likelihood of persisting in changing landscapes. This is an especially interesting question for amphibians that use both aquatic and terrestrial habitats, like the Gopher Frog.

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How Flowering Responds to Climate

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Author: Eric Menges

Since the 1980s, Archbold Biological Station has provided a post-baccalaureate internship program (offered to individuals after they have completed their undergraduate degree). Over the years this has provided hands-on research experience to more than 500 college graduates. “Interns benefit from living at a biological field station, being trained in field research, and completing their independent research project,” explains Dr. Hilary Swain, Executive Director. “It is one of only a few programs nationwide that allows recent graduates to gain research experience before they commit to a graduate program or choose another career path.”

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Post-doc Student Working at Archbold: Searching for Hidden Drivers of Florida’s Rarest Plants

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By Maya Bell, University of Miami

There is a new collaboration growing at Archbold Biological Station, but it is so small, you can’t even see it. Over the last month, post-doctoral researcher Daniel Revillini from the University of Miami has been planting thousands of seeds—some smaller than a speck of dust, others the size of a grain of rice—into hundreds of tiny pots in a makeshift grow house in the basement of the university’s Cox Science Building. The goal is to find out if soil microorganisms, too small to see, affect the fates of these seeds.

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Exploring novel objects, novel places, and novel technology

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Author: Dr. Angela Tringali

Researchers at Archbold Biological Station are gathered around a computer screen, watching a video of a bird hop around a doll. The bird is gathering peanuts that have been placed around the doll’s feet. The doll is a troll doll, complete with brightly colored hair and a jeweled belly button. The bird is a Florida Scrub-Jay, a highly social member of the crow family. As the jay gathers the peanuts surrounding the doll’s feet, it hops in a semi-circle from the doll’s rear to its smiling face. Mouth full of peanuts, the jay lifts its head. It finds itself eye to eye with the troll and jumps straight into the air before fluttering backward.

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Intern to Professor Trajectory began at Archbold

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Author: Dr. Jennifer Schafer

The first time Dr. Jennifer Schafer drove down Old State Road 8 and past the Spanish moss-covered oaks along the driveway into Archbold Biological Station, it was October 2001 and she was excited about her first job outside the Midwest. It did not take long for her to fall in love with the Florida scrub—the views from the Florida rosemary scrub patches, the sunsets over pines and palmettos, and the high level of endemism—species not seen anywhere else in the world. Eighteen years later, she is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Winthrop University in South Carolina and a Research Affiliate at Archbold, focusing on studies of plant ecology. And now, when she drives down Old State Road 8, she feels like she’s coming home.

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Hitchhiking Lizards

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Author: Amanda West

Florida’s warm winters make it an ideal place for non-native reptiles to survive when transplanted here.  When a new species gains a foothold in south Florida, it may continue spreading northward, a process known as ‘secondary dispersal’.  In March, Archbold Biological Station researchers caught a small lizard making just such a move.
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Minty Fresh Conservation

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Author: Stephanie Koontz

In conservation sometimes rare plants and animals need a little boost in numbers to help populations in the wild rebound or remain stable. For plants, this is typically done by directly sowing seeds or by collecting seeds or stems from plants in the wild, growing them up in a greenhouse, and then re-planting them into their natural habitat. These translocations can be to new sites, where the habitat is right, or to existing populations in the wild. The Plant Ecology Program at Archbold Biological Station has successfully conducted three translocations of one of the rarest mints on our planet, Garrett’s Mint (Dicerandra christmanii), found only in Highlands County, Florida. “Through these efforts, we hope to keep this unique little mint around for generations to enjoy”, exclaims Program Director Eric Menges.

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Queen of Red Hill

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Written by Hilary Swain, Jennifer Brown (Into Nature Films), and Betsie Rothermel

Archbold Biological Station has a new leading lady. She is the star of the film, ‘Queen of Red Hill,’ just released online at Archbold’s Vimeo and Youtube channels. Her name is Number 21, that is, Gopher Tortoise 21. At 60+ years old, she is one of the ‘grande dames’ of the Gopher Tortoise community living on the Red Hill at Archbold. She landed her role, vividly portraying her sandy, underground realm, because her story is Archbold’s story. She is emblematic of a tale told throughout wild Florida – loss of home, survival, and eventual recovery. Continue reading →

The Mysterious World of Ants

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Florida is full of ants, ranging from burly carpenter ants parading up tree trunks to microscopic species tunneling deep in the sand. From Archbold Biological Station comes the first book on Florida ants, covering all 239 species found in the state. The author, Dr. Mark Deyrup, scientist at Archbold, has spent more than 25 years studying the strange lives of Florida ants, including about 130 species found here in Highlands County. Continue reading →

Not All that Glitters is Nectar

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There’s incredible beauty in nature; often you just have to get on your hands and knees to see it. While working at Archbold Biological Station, I often took walks that required me to step around a large puddle. It was probably because I was too preoccupied with not getting wet that it took me two months to realize that I had been tiptoeing over my favorite plants in the world: carnivorous plants. Continue reading →

A Rare and Amazing Flower

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As I was going for a sunset walk one evening I spotted a flower that I never thought I would get to see. I was so excited that I got up before sunrise to go photograph it the next morning. Meet the Dicerandra frutescens, aka Lake Placid Scrub Balm, one of the rarest plants at Archbold with one of the most amazing pollination stories. Continue reading →