Getting to Know The REAL Florida

1
Getting to Know The REAL Florida

• Day 2

L. Rojas
2
In our first program, we introduced you to wild
and natural Florida, the REAL Florida of trees
and forests and animals, wild and free.
N. Deyrup
3
If we are to find ways to have Florida for
ourselves and to have the REAL Florida, too, we
need to learn about the animals and plants that
are NATIVE to the lands and waters of Florida.
K. Givens
4
How do they live their lives?
N. Deyrup
For example, what do you think these
butterflies are doing? Are they eating the
leaves of the plant? Or, are they drinking
nectar from the flower?
5
Why do they do the things they do?
N. Deyrup
Example Why do you think scrub-jays bury
acorns? Is it to store them and eat later?
Is it because the acorns are rotten? Or
is it to hide them from other scrub-jays?
6
What are their needs?

• List three things these plants
• need to survive?
• _____________
• _____________
• _____________

L. Rojas
7
If we learn answers to questions like these, we
can find ways to live with nature otherwise, we
may hurt the wild plants and animals, or even
whole systems of land and life that we call
ECOSYSTEMS.
L.Rojas
8
This is the work of scientists. Carefully and
patiently, they study the forests and lakes and
the many things that live in them.
J. Schafer
9
There are many kinds of places around the world
where scientists study our planet and its many
creatures and ecosystems.Can you name some of
these places?
L. Rojas
10
Did anybody think of mountains?
N. Deyrup

• or deserts?

F. Lohrer
11
How about the rainforests of South America?
N. Deyrup
12
. . . or the savannas of Africa?
R. Pickert
13
What about the northern forests?
N. Deyrup

• ..or the ocean?

N. Deyrup
14
Did anybody think of a special place, here in
Highlands County,where scientists come from all
over to study the natural world?
N. Deyrup

• THE ARCHBOLD BIOLOGICAL STATION

15
At Archbold Biological Station
there are dormitories for the scientists to live
in,
N. Deyrup

• a dining room where they have their meals,

N. Deyrup
16
labs to work in,
N. Deyrup

• and computers to help them keep track of their
  data,

N. Deyrup
17
a big scientific library where they can keep up
with the reports of other scientists working in
other places,
N. Deyrup
18
their own weather station, to keep track of
temperature, rainfall, and other aspects of
weather that are especially important to wild
things,
N. Deyrup
19
and most important of all,
N. Deyrup
the Station has more than five thousand acres
of wild Florida,
N. Deyrup
20
just like it was before the first pioneers came
to our state,
N. Deyrup
where the scientists can do their studies.
N. Deyrup
21
Archbold Biological Station has a very colorful
history.
ABS archives
22
The original land of the Station was purchased in
1930 by the Roeblings, the same family who built
the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
ABS archives
23
They planned to build an estate on the land, so
they started with a huge warehouse alongside the
railroad tracks where supplies would be easy to
store.
A. Blair
24
The Roeblings insisted that the work be done by
people, not by machines.
A. Blair
Do you know why?
Remember that this was during the Great
Depression in the 1930s.
A. Blair
25
Yes, this offered many jobs to people who were
out of work. Many families could now afford to
buy food because they had jobs working on the
Roebling estate.
A. Blair
A. Blair
26
Margaret Roebling loved the native trees of the
REAL Florida, and became one of the first people
in Florida to use them for landscaping.
L. Rojas
27
Some she planted to provide homes and food for
wildlife. She was one of the people responsible
for getting the land for Highlands Hammock State
Park in Sebring.
N. Deyrup
28
Sadly, however, Margaret Roebling died before she
could ever come to live on her beautiful land.
N. Deyrup
29
Their house was never built, but the warehouse
and some other buildings were, using excellent
materials.
A. Blair
30
As it happened, Richard Archbold was a friend
and schoolmate of the Roeblings son, Donald.
ABS archives
31
Richard was interested in studying mammals, and
when he was 21, he began to go on expeditions of
biological exploration.
ABS archives
32
For several years following, he flew his
seaplane, the GUBA,
ABS archives
to faraway places to study their people and
wildlife.
ABS archives
33
Many scientific discoveries were made.
ABS archives
ABS archives
34
In 1941, when Richard Archbold needed a place to
set up permanent headquarters for Archbold
Expeditions, the Roebling family donated their
1060-acre estate, and so Archbold Biological
Station was begun.
S. Denton
35
Mr. Archbold set up his biological laboratories
and lived at the Station.
ABS archives

• He was its director until he died in 1976.

ABS archives
36
But the work of the Station did not end.
N. Deyrup
37
Scientists from all over the world still come to
the Station to study the many plants, insects,
birds, mammals, and other wildlife that live in
this special piece of the REAL Florida.
R. Bowman
D. McJunkin
N. Deyrup
38
Lets take a closer look at several of the
professional scientists at Archbold Biological
Station to see what they are learning about the
REAL Florida.
L. Rojas
39
Here a team of scientists studies the family life
of scrub-jays.
N. Deyrup
40
See the colored bands on the legs of this
scrub-jay?

• As all scrub-jays look alike, the scientists
  place bands on the birds legs to tell them apart.

N. Deyrup
41
The scrub-jay study at the Station has been going
on since 1969.
R. Lavoy
42
and scientists now know more about this species
of bird, and how they get along with each other
in their ecosystem, than almost any other group
of bird.
G. Woolfenden
43
To study animals closely, sometimes they must be
captured.
N. Deyrup

• Here a scientist puts bait in a live trap. The
  trap is actually a cage with a trap door that
  slams shut when the animal
• wiggles the bait.

44
The animal is caught inside, unhurt.
J. Layne

• Of course, scientists must check their live traps
  often. Why do you think that is?
• 1.- long periods in a trap are harmful to an
  animal.
• 2.- they might forget where they put the trap.
• 3.- you might not catch anything otherwise.

45
Birds can be captured with a mist net, studied,
banded and released unharmed.
G. Woolfenden

• The net is hung across a place where birds
  usually fly.

46
The strings are so thin that the birds cannot see
them until it is too late.
R. Lavoy

• These are Black-Capped Chickadees that have been
  caught for banding.

47
Different kinds of traps are used for trapping
different kinds of animals.
What do you think this trap is designed for? Is
it for 1.- rabbits? 2.- snakes? 3.- insects?
N. Deyrup
48
What do you think this trap catches?
P. Martin
49
This is a drift fence that guides crawling
animals like lizards and snakes into this.
F. Lohrer

• pitfall trap.

F. Lohrer
50
After they are caught, the animals are carefully
weighed and measured. All information is then
recorded.
P. Murray
51
Why would a scientist measure a gopher tortoise?
N. Deyrup
52
What can scientists learn from the information
they gather?1. Can they learn how big certain
animals get?2. Are the males and females of
different sizes?3. Can they determine if some
plants like one habitat better than another?
J. Layne
53
Sometimes it is important to mark an animal so
you will recognize it if you see it again.
N. Deyrup
54
Birds are marked with a lightweight aluminum
band, stamped with a special ID number and
address telling you whom to contact if you should
find a banded bird.
N. Deyrup
55
How do you get a circular bracelet past the toes
and onto the leg?
N. Deyrup
56
The band starts out open on one side, like the
letter C, then special pliers are used to clamp
it onto the leg.
N. Deyrup
57
There are different sizes of bands for different
sized birds.
N. Deyrup
58
Gopher tortoises are marked by drilling small
holes in their shell where it will not feel pain.
There are other ways of marking animals, as
well.
N. Deyrup
59
Sometimes, scientists want to know where animals
go and what they do.
N. Deyrup
60
This isnt very easy to do! Some animals, like
birds, deer and bobcats, move great distances
very quickly.
J. Layne
61
Others, like snakes and mice, crawl through thick
bushes where humans have a hard time moving
around. So scientists have invented ingenious
ways of tracking these animals.
N. Deyrup
62
One way is with a radio transmitter. Once an
animal is trapped, measured, and marked, it may
get a transmitter collar.
M. Winegarner
63
Wherever it goes, the transmitter gives off a
beeping sound that the scientist can pick up on
special radio receivers.
M. Winegarner
64
By following the beeps, the scientist can follow
the animal.
P. Martin
65
Once, scientists were following a mouse when its
beeper suddenly stopped moving.
J. Layne
66
Upon tracking the sound they found it was coming
from inside a big rattlesnake! Well, they had
learned one of the places that some mice go!
J. Layne
67
Scientists must be very careful not to lose the
information they find, nor to forget to make
notes of observations that are part of their
studies.
J. Layne
J. Layne
68
Recording facts correctly is a big part of
scientific research.What can scientists use to
record their data? 1. ________________2.
________________3. ________________4.
________________
J. Schafer
69
From time to time, scientists stop their studies
long enough to write reports of what they have
learned.
N. Deyrup
70
By writing reports and then publishing them in
scientific journals and books like these, they
share information with other scientists all over
the world.
N. Deyrup
71
Of course, they are very proud to see their hard
work show up in a scientific journal!
N. Deyrup
72
Now you have an idea of what its like to be a
professional scientist. In a few days, your
class will visit Archbold Biological Station to
see it for yourselves.
N. Deyrup