Friends of the Polk County Parks Foundation, Inc.

09/04/2026

Daily, numerous squirrels are brought to rehabilitation centers and veterinary offices that could have been reunited with their mothers. All rehabilitation centers in this region are currently operating at maximum capacity for squirrel care. Before intervening with a baby squirrel, please adhere to the guidelines provided on the informational sheet. If the QR code is inaccessible, simply search for 'baby gray squirrel distress call' to find relevant instructions. It is crucial for the well-being of the squirrels that we prioritize reunification whenever possible, as healthy squirrels often fall from their nests and can be returned to their mothers within a timeframe ranging from one to three hours. By doing so, we can reserve limited rehabilitation resources for squirrels with critical injuries, such as bloody noses, that require professional care and cannot be reunited with their mothers. For the sake of the squirrels, please follow the established protocols for reunification.

09/03/2026

In South Florida, the National Weather Service has issued forecasts warning residents about something few other weather offices ever need to mention: falling iguanas.

The warning is literal. Green iguanas spend nights sleeping in trees, often high above sidewalks, yards and roads. When a strong cold front pushes temperatures into the 40s and 30s, their body temperature falls with the surrounding air. Their metabolism slows, their muscles stop working properly, and some simply lose their grip on the branch. In January 2020, the National Weather Service office in Miami warned that as temperatures dropped into the 30s and 40s, residents should not be surprised to see iguanas falling from trees. It repeated similar warnings during later South Florida cold snaps.

Green iguanas are tropical reptiles native to Central and South America and parts of the Caribbean. They were first reported in Florida during the 1960s and are now established across much of South Florida. Mature males can grow more than five feet long and weigh up to about 17 pounds. In warm weather they climb, swim and run remarkably well, which makes catching one difficult. Cold weather temporarily changes that.

The condition is known as cold stunning. As temperatures fall, iguanas enter torpor. Their breathing and metabolism slow and they can become stiff and almost completely immobile. They may look dead on the ground, but many are very much alive. Sustained temperatures around 30 to 40 degrees are especially likely to produce the familiar sight of motionless iguanas beneath trees.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a specific warning for anyone tempted to rescue one: do not carry a cold-stunned iguana inside to warm it up. Once its body temperature rises, an animal that appeared nearly frozen can recover much faster than expected. A large green iguana suddenly awake in a house or car comes equipped with sharp claws, teeth and a muscular tail it can use defensively.

Occasional cold snaps do more than create strange photographs. If the cold persists, some iguanas die. A prolonged freeze in 2010 caused a major mortality event among South Florida's tropical reptiles, including green iguanas. Cold-stunned animals that survive the initial temperature drop can also become increasingly vulnerable the longer their bodies remain chilled. Their immune function slows, leaving them more susceptible to infections.

In early 2026, Florida decided to make use of the phenomenon.

An unusually severe cold spell was headed for South Florida when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued Executive Order 26-03 on January 30. For two days, February 1 and 2, ordinary members of the public were temporarily allowed to collect live, cold-stunned green iguanas and transport them to designated FWC locations without the permit normally required to possess the prohibited species alive. The commission even specified how to do it: protective clothing, an escape-proof cloth sack, and a second secure container in the vehicle in case the iguana warmed up on the drive.

Floridians brought in a remarkable number.

By February 4, FWC reported that 5,195 green iguanas had been removed from Florida's ecosystems under the temporary order. More than a thousand arrived at the Tequesta collection site alone. The animals were humanely killed or, in some cases, transferred to permitted businesses for sale outside Florida. Green iguanas can already be humanely killed year-round on private property with the owner's permission, but the cold had briefly made thousands of normally fast-moving animals easy to collect alive.

University of Florida wildlife ecologist Frank Mazzotti has suggested another option when the trees start dropping iguanas. In their native range, green iguanas are eaten and have acquired the nickname “chicken of the trees.” Asked what someone could do with a fallen invasive iguana, Mazzotti's advice was unusually practical: eating it was one possibility.

So in South Florida, a sufficiently strong cold front can produce a sequence that sounds invented but is now routine enough for government agencies to plan around it.

Image is for illustration purposes only

Source: National Weather Service Miami / Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission / University of Florida IFAS / Frank Mazzotti, University of Florida.

09/02/2026

In 2020, researchers opened the regrown tails of three young American alligators from Louisiana and found something unexpected. The tails had grown back, but the animals had rebuilt them without vertebrae or skeletal muscle.

The alligators had been caught in the wild around Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. Each had lost part of its tail sometime earlier and later grown a replacement measuring between about 6 and 18 percent of its total body length. Nobody knew exactly how the injuries happened. Young alligators can lose tail tissue during attacks by larger alligators, and boat propellers are another possible cause of severe tail injuries.

From the outside, the replacement was easy to spot. A normal alligator tail carries rows of large raised scutes along its back. The regrown sections did not. They were covered instead by smaller, dark scales distributed much more evenly around the tail. The skin itself had regenerated normally enough to contain the usual epidermal and dermal layers. What lay underneath was much stranger.

An original alligator tail is built around a chain of vertebrae surrounded by powerful skeletal muscles. In the regrown section, X-rays showed no new vertebrae at all. MRI scans revealed a single hollow rod running down the replacement tail. It was made of cartilage, was not divided into segments, and sat unusually low in the tail rather than occupying the central position of a normal spinal column. Small openings along the rod provided routes for blood vessels and nerves.

Then the researchers looked for muscle.

There wasn't any.

Instead of rebuilding the organized skeletal muscle that allows the original tail to bend and generate thrust, the alligators had filled much of the replacement with dense fibrous connective tissue rich in type I and type III collagen. Blood vessels and bundles of nerve fibers had grown into it, and some animals also had pockets of fat. The nerves were probably providing sensation rather than movement because there was no skeletal muscle for them to operate.

The result was a strange compromise between regeneration and ordinary wound healing. Lizards can also replace lost vertebrae with a cartilage tube when they regrow a tail, but many species regenerate skeletal muscle around it as well. Mammals generally respond to major injuries by producing scar tissue instead. The alligator did some of both: it built new cartilage, skin, nerves and blood vessels, while much of the space where muscle should have been became collagen-rich tissue resembling a scar.

Without muscle, the regrown section itself cannot flex like the original tail. The three alligators were nevertheless healthy when captured. The researchers suggested that the undamaged front portion of the tail still provided enough power for swimming, while the replacement section may at least restore some of the lost surface area behind it. Exactly how much the new tail helps an alligator move has not yet been measured.

There may be a very old history behind the ability. A fossil of the Jurassic marine crocodilian Steneosaurus bollensis contained a 4.7-inch rod interpreted as ossified cartilage in a repaired tail. That animal lived roughly 180 million years ago, suggesting that some form of imperfect tail regrowth existed deep in the crocodilian lineage long before modern alligators appeared.

Modern alligators therefore do something far more complicated than simply closing a wound, but considerably less complete than growing the original tail again. A juvenile can replace a substantial missing section with skin, nerves, blood vessels and a new internal support.

The vertebrae and muscle are gone for good.

Image is for illustration purposes only

Source: Cindy Xu, Joanna Palade, Rebecca E. Fisher et al., Scientific Reports, 2020, “Anatomical and histological analyses reveal that tail repair is coupled with regrowth in wild-caught, juvenile American alligators.”

08/19/2026

A site containing 80 acres of undisturbed Florida sandhill habitat will become the latest addition to Polk's environmental preserves, the County Commission agreed Tuesday .Commissioners agreed to

07/29/2026

The National Wildlife Refuge Association celebrates the designation of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge as a UNESCO World Heritage Site , recognizing one of the w orld's most extraordinary wetlands and affirming its global ecological and cultural significance.

07/29/2026

07/12/2026

Scout Troop 541 weeded and planted coonties at Circle B Bar Reserve outside the entrance to the Discovery Center. This conservation project is part of the boys earning their Soil & Water Merit Badge.
Troop Leader is Ameé Bailey.