Randell Research Center

06/16/2026

Help protect Florida's heritage and history. Learn what to do if you find an artifact.

06/11/2026

One of the RRC's ospreys is featured in this post!

Museum Resource 🦅 Florida Bird Sounds
From Laughing Gulls to Woodcocks, listen to sound clips of many Florida bird species to learn to ID what's flying nearby:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/birds/florida-bird-sounds/

💔 Includes the extinct Dusky Seaside Sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus nigrescens).

Featured: Osprey at our Randell Research Center in SW Florida. Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace

06/10/2026

To help care for our wetlands & wildlife, be on the lookout for the invasive swamp eel (Monopterus albus)! A Ft. Myers resident recently spotted a swamp eel in her yard. This air-breathing fish consumes crayfish, frogs, and other small fish, threatening the food supply for native wading birds like egrets and spoonbills.

Because South Florida's canals, waterways, and estuaries are connected, this eel is a threat from the Everglades to the coast. If you see a swamp eel in your neighborhood, you can help by reporting it here: https://www.eddmaps.org/ or downloading the I've Got 1 app (see links below).

ℹ️ Learn how the Florida Museum of Natural History is contributing to research on swamp eels: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/earth-systems/blog/research-highlights-invasive-swamp-eels-in-florida/

🧬 More on how the University of Florida has developed new DNA detection tools to locate swamp eels: https://news.ufl.edu/2026/02/asian-swamp-eels/

What are Swamp Eels? When describing swamp eels, it’s often easier to start by explaining what they are not. First things first, they are not eels! Rather, they are elongate percomorphs – a type of ray-finned fish that has a body shape much longer than it is deep. Secondly, they do not have any

06/08/2026

Pink rain lilies are blooming at the RRC, a sign of transition to a wet, tropical weather pattern! Visit us to see how the wetland changes between winter and summer.

06/03/2026

Have you ever wondered how the Calusa and other indigenous Floridians prepared for--and survived--hurricanes?

There is archeological evidence that a large hurricane hit Pineland around 300 C.E. A 1992 excavation found thin sand layers, as well as plant and animal remains, which show that seawater surged across the settlement.

We can't know the specifics of how the Calusa handled this event, but disturbances in the weather and changes in animal behavior would have signaled that a large storm was on the way. Calusa people may have been able to see the approach of the storm from the high mounds in Pineland.

Pineland's large shell mounds could have provided refuge from storm surge. Even today, the mounds are much higher than predicted storm surge levels. The Pine Island Canal, engineered and managed by the Calusa people, could also have facilitated movement away from the coast. The Calusas' deep knowledge of the hydrology and geography of Pine Island likely helped them plan and prepare.

Indigenous architecture also helped. The Calusa and other indigenous people built open-sided dwellings thatched with palm fronds. The roofs were water-tight, resilient to strong winds, and cool in the summer.

Calusa homes were similar to the traditional chickees built by the Seminole people. Though now constructed with modern materials, open-sided palm structures are still popular in South Florida architecture, an adaptation with thousands of years of cultural history.

By Carrie Dilley, Visitor Services and Development Manager While we constantly aim to engage with and educate our visitors, we also strive to break down stereotypes and represent Seminoles as moder…

06/02/2026

In May, longtime RRC board member and archaeologist Dr. George M. Luer received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Anthropological Society. In addition to his research on the Calusa at Pineland, Dr. Luer spent many years as editor of The Florida
Anthropologist. Congratulations Dr. Luer and thank you for all of your work uncovering and sharing Florida's ancient history.

06/01/2026

Take a hike! This Saturday, June 6, is National Trails Day. Visit the Randell Research Center and learn more about Pine Island's history and ecology, or visit Calusa Land Trust parks across Pine Island.

American Hiking Society's National Trails Day is a day of service for hometown trails and the people who love them - June 6, 2026

05/20/2026

What's the buzz? It's World Bee Day! Learn about Florida's bees:

May 20 🐝 !

While we often think of bees as fuzzy, black and yellow-striped buzzy insects that live in hives like the honey bee, the truth is more gorgeous and diverse than that!

There are more than 4,000 species of bees that live in the United States, and Florida is home to over 300 of those species. There are 29 species that are only found here in Florida!

We humans import and maintain hives of honeybees because they are critical for many crops. Without the hard work of these bees, we wouldn’t have much of the food we humans eat today.

Native bees are also important pollinators. Some species have direct relationships with native plants while others are flexible about what types of flowers they visit.

Some Florida bee species are social and live in colonies with a queen. Others live in communities that share a space but with separate nesting chambers. Most species are not communal, and individual bees make their nests away from other bees.

Most Florida species nest in the ground by digging tunnels in the soil or sand. Others nest in existing hollow spaces like rotting wood, reed stems or holes made by other insects.

Learn more about bees on World Bee Day and share your love of important pollinators!

🐝 Five Facts: Bees in Florida
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/five-facts-bees-in-florida/

Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace

05/15/2026

Museum Resource 🐸🎶 Florida Frog Calls
If you learn to pick out the species of frogs (and toads), you can quickly know a lot about the habitat, the season and even the individual’s personal message. They call out for breeding purposes, to mark territory, to alert each other about predators and in response to the weather.

Our online guide has audio of many species you will typically hear in our state, as well as seasonal chorus tracks of multiple species, and a modern addition – the Cuban treefrog.

Listen: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-herps/florida-frog-calls/

🐸

05/14/2026

It's a blob! If you're a gardener, you may recognize the colorfully named dog vomit slime mold (Fuligo septica), which often appears overnight on mulch or grass clippings. This mold starts bright yellow, pink, or orange, and eventually turns tan or brown, like the image shown here. Recently, some of these creatures appeared at the RRC, a sign of changing humidity as we move into summer.

Slime molds are not true fungi, but single-celled animals, similar to amoebas. Dog vomit slime mold has a special ability to absorb heavy metals from the environment, meaning it may someday play a role in environmental cleanup.

Slime molds move as much as a millimeter per hour and can even solve mazes and other complex problems. They are providing researchers with new insights about intelligence and memory. It turns out you don't need a brain to be bright!

After rain, you may see this organism on mulch or at the bases of trees. It does not live long but may be scraped away if it is causing trouble in a manicured garden.

📷 Florida Museum photo by RRC Staff.