Only original artwork of NATIVE FLORIDA WILDLIFE may be entered in the The Art for Animals Contest.

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2003 Art for Animals Contest Sponsored by The
St. Francis Wildlife Associations Suzanne E.
Plescia Endowed Education Fund, The Tallahassee
Democrat and NIE

• Only original artwork of NATIVE FLORIDA WILDLIFE
  may be entered in the The Art for Animals
  Contest.
• What is NATIVE FLORIDA WILDLIFE?
• Read on to learn the answers to these questions
• 1. What is wildlife? What is the difference
  between WILD ANIMALS and DOMESTICATED ANIMALS?
• 2. What is native Florida wildlife? What is the
  difference between NATIVE wildlife and EXOTIC
  wildlife?

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• What is WILDLIFE?
• What is the difference between A) DOMESTICATED
  ANIMALS and B) WILDLIFE?
• A) DOMESTICATED ANIMALS
• A DOMESTICATED animal is one that people have
  changed or altered through many generations of
• breeding. These animals are usually tame. Some
  are kept as our pets. Others help us by
  performing a
• service. Domesticated animals are NOT wildlife.

A PET is a domesticated animal kept as a
companion or friend. Some pet animals are
certain breeds of dogs, cats, horses and
rabbits. If a pet is abandoned in the wild and
it survives to breed with other abandoned pets,
the pet and its offspring are called feral
animals. Feral animals are still domesticated,
not wild. Feral cats may survive by killing
wildlife and by taking human handouts, but they
shy away from being handled by people.
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B) WILD ANIMALS A wild animal (also called
wildlife) lives in a natural environment,
without human aid or care, and is not tame or
domesticated (intentionally changed by humans).
grey squirrel babies
red rat snake
raccoon
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• 2. What is native Florida wildlife?
• What is the difference between A) NATIVE WILDLIFE
  and B) EXOTIC WILDLIFE?
• A) NATIVE WILDLIFE
• An wild animal that originated, lives, and occurs
  naturally in a particular region or environment
  is NATIVE to that place. Endemic and
  indigenous are synonyms for (mean the same as)
  native.
• Examples of NATIVE FLORIDA WILDLIFE are

the Florida black bear and the barn owl.
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B) EXOTIC WILDLIFE An exotic animal is one that
naturally lives in another country or region and
is not native to Florida. Examples of WILDLIFE
that are EXOTIC and NOT NATIVE TO FLORIDA are
the snowy owl and the grizzly bear. These
animals live in the northern United States, but
NOT in Florida.
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EXOTIC PETS and EXOTIC ESCAPES An exotic pet
animal is one that is wild somewhere else in the
world but is kept as as a pet here. For example,
some parrots that were originally brought from
South America are bred and sold the United States
as exotic pets. These animals have not been
changed (altered genetically by people) in any
way. They look the same as they do in the South
American rain forests. Therefore, they are not
domesticated pets. They are exotic pets. Some
other exotic pets are sugar gliders, ferrets,
prairie dogs, gerbils, hamsters, turtles, iguanas
and pythons.
It is now illegal to import most wild animals to
sell as pets. Today, exotic pets, which must
be bred from animals that already live here, are
called captive bred exotic pets. If an exotic
pet escapes and manages to live and breed in the
wild in Florida, it is called non-native or
exotic wildlife or an escape. It does NOT
become native wildlife.
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So, now that you understand what Native Florida
Wildlife is . . . wild animals that
originated, live, and occur naturally in Florida
(and are not pets or exotic animals) . . . how
will you create your artwork for the Art for
Animals Contest?
barn owl