Blog Entry 2 - Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

It had been a long time since I had last been to Corkscrew Sanctuary, ever since Elementary school - or so I originally though. I must have been thinking about Ding Darling, or a similar place, since when the bus arrived at the sanctuary I realized that I had really been there much more recently than I remembered. The last time I had actually been there was only about 4 years ago, during my first semester at FGCU, when I took a class called Environmental Biology of SW Florida. While I was initially disappointed that I wasn't going to be visiting a place I hadn't been to since I was very young, I soon remembered just how interesting of a place Corkscrew really is. The preserve is a combination of different types of ecosystems. Pine flatwoods and cypress domes were among the types we walked though. Each ecosystem is different from the other in terms of what plants and animals can live there. As I walked around on the boardwalk, I couldn't help but notice that the sanctuary did not look the same as it had the last time I had visited. The reason for this was that it was now the dry season - a lot of the green plants and bushes I had seen four years ago (during the rainy season) were now dry and golden from the lack of moisture. There was also almost no standing water as well. The alligators at the sanctuary had reportedly been forced to result to cannibalism due to the lack of their normal prey items (turtles, fish, etc). When it comes to the plants, while seemingly dead, many of them will bounce back to full health once the rain starts coming back. This is a type of adaptation that has helped native plants survive in Florida's harsh climate.