Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Wild Florida Adventure | A Virtual Tour

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Welcome to Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

You’re about to begin a Wild Florida Adventure exploring an ancient cypress forest with giant 500-year-old trees. Imagine if the trees could speak to you. What stories would they tell? Tales of Native Americans who lived off the land? Brave Audubon Wardens protecting the birds from plume hunters? Thousands of birds roosting in the massive branches of the bald cypress? The sounds of alligators bellowing and birds greeting each other with their morning calls? Oh, what amazing stories they could share. Listen….you just may hear them.

The trees would tell of buzzing chainsaws as the logging companies began cutting down the nearby forests. Imagine how scared the trees must have been. Who would help them? National Audubon Society Wardens were protecting the birds, but who would save the trees that wildlife depend on for their homes? Thanks to concerned citizens and kids, just like you, enough money was raised to buy this forest. Today, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary has the largest old-growth cypress forest left in the world. The Sanctuary was established more than 60 years ago in 1954 and its staff and volunteers will continue to protect this forest for future generations. 

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Let's go on a Wild Florida Adventure

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is home to many endangered and protected species including the Florida panther, American alligators, and Wood Storks. You will be exploring different habitats, in search of wildlife, all while learning about the mysteries of the swamp. Are you ready? Put on your listening ears, use your eagle eyes, and walk with quiet feet to explore the forest with all its creatures big and small.

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Ecosystems

What is an ecosystem?

An ecosystem is a community of living and non-living things such as plants, animals, water, soil, and rocks. Each living thing has an important role to play as a producer, consumer, or decomposer.

What is a habitat?

A habitat is where a species lives. You will explore three different habitats on your Wild Florida Adventure tour: pine flatwoods, wet prairie, and cypress swamp.

Hydroperiod

Hydroperiod is the number of days each year that water is above ground in a wetland. The hydroperiod directly influences the type of soil, vegetation, and wildlife found in each habitat.

Let’s Explore!

The first stop of your Wild Florida Adventure will be the pine flatwoods habitat. What will you discover? Let’s go explore!

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Habitats of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

 Pine flatwoods  represent the most extensive type of terrestrial ecosystem in Florida, covering approximately 50% of the natural land area. These forests are dominated by southern slash pine and interspersed sabal palm, with an understory of mostly saw palmetto and mixed grasses.

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Prescribed Fire

In addition to water, fire is a dominant environmental force that structures and maintains ecosystems throughout Florida. As more people have moved near natural areas,  prescribed fire  has become an extremely useful land management tool that helps perpetuate fire-dependent native plants, controls non-native plants, and enhances wildlife habitat. Some plants and animals depend upon fire for their survival. Periodic burning enhances habitat used by wildlife including endangered species such as the Florida panther, gopher tortoise, eastern indigo snake, and Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

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Wet Prairie is a habitat found in flat or gently sloping areas and has shallow standing water for only a few months of each year. Often wet prairie is found between lower lying swamps and slightly higher pine flatwoods. Wiregrass, sugercane plumegrass, and marsh cordgrass, often with scattered coastal plain willow and other shrubs, dominate the wet prairie. Due to close proximity to other types of habitats, wet prairies attract a variety of wildlife such as deer, marsh rabbits, frogs, dragonflies, and butterflies.

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 Cypress swamps  are forested wetlands covering approximately 5% of the land area in Florida. These forests often grow in long, flooded depressions in the landscape called strands and are dominated by bald cypress. Cypress swamps provide important habitat for a multitude of wildlife such as the American alligator, river otter, snakes, and many species of wading birds, including the federally threatened Wood Stork.

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 The Lettuce Lakes  was named for the floating water lettuce that serves as cover for the abundance of fish, turtles, and alligators. Wading birds can be seen foraging in what is called a “feeding frenzy” as the water levels drop and fish are concentrated into small pools. This feeding frenzy is during the peak of wading bird nesting season and allows them to catch enough fish to feed their growing chicks.

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A keystone species is an animal or plant upon which other species in an ecosystem depend. Alligators are important predators that serve a critical role in the ecosystem. As “ecosystem engineers,” alligator trails and holes provide refuge for wading birds and fish during the dry season. Their nests decompose to form nutrient-rich soil.

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Amazing Adaptations: Beaks & Bills

All animals have specialized mouthparts to help them catch their prey. You can often determine what type of food a bird might eat and how they catch their food by observing their bill or beak and their hunting technique.

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Wildlife Video

A Barred Owl was spotted hunting crayfish in the cypress swamp.

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Venomous Snakes of Florida

Snakes play an important role in the ecosystem, not only as predators that help to control rodent populations, but as prey for other wildlife. South Florida is home to four venomous snakes: the eastern coral snake, eastern diamondback rattlesnake, dusky pygmy rattlesnake, and the water moccasin, also known as the cottonmouth.

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Living Machine

Did you know that wetland plants and animals use nutrients found in wastewater as a food source? It is this process that recycles Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary’s wastewater without using harmful chemicals. The Living Machine mimics nature by using plants, animals, and sunlight to clean the water. Built in 1994, it is the first permitted Living Machine in the state of Florida.

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Wonderful Watery Wetlands: Why a healthy watershed is important

All creatures depend on water to survive.

Water = Life

Rain is an important water source for Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. It flows slowly through lakes, swamps, canals, and across the land to the estuaries where the rivers and oceans meet. This is called sheet flow because the water covers the land like a sheet. The light blue arrows on the map show the direction water travels as it flows to the rivers and into the ocean. What kinds of pollutants are being picked up along the way? How does that hurt the estuaries where small fish and seagrass live? Why are wetlands important? How can we help?

Resources on Hydrology

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Ecotone

An ecotone is the transition zone between two different habitats. Ecotones have great environmental importance and are often home to more species than other nearby habitats.

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Ecotone video

At this ecotone, the bald cypress forest transitions to the open marsh. This ecotone is very noticeable but many of these habitat transitions are hard to see and, in Florida, are often caused by small changes in the height of the land.

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Ancient Forest

Bald Cypress

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is home to the largest old-growth bald cypress forest in North America. These impressive trees, relatives of the redwood, can tower 130 feet into the sky and have a girth of 25 feet. Their massive branches are draped with mosses, lichens, bromeliads, and ferns. 

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The forest is also home to hundreds of alligators, otters, deer, and turtles. A wide variety of wading birds, songbirds, and raptors can be seen throughout the year at the Sanctuary.

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Alligator Flag

Also called fire flag, alligator flag has very large, broad leaves and small purple flowers. Both of its common names come from the fact that it grows in the deepest parts of the cypress forest where there is usually water and, therefore, where alligators and other wildlife find safety during wildfires. Alligator flag was an important food for native peoples such as the the Seminoles and Miccosukees who used the large leaves to wrap foods for cooking.

Photo 2: Pickerel weed is an aquatic native plant found in shallow wetland areas at Corkscrew swamp.

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American alligator camouflaged in a flag pond.

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A young American alligator sunning itself.


How can I help Wild Florida?

There are many simple things you can do to lessen your impact on the environment. To get you started, here are some actions you can take now. By doing just a few, you and your family can make a difference.

Conserve water. Take a shorter shower. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth.

Using water-saving techniques saves money and diverts less water from our rivers, bays, and estuaries, which helps keep the environment healthy. Reducing the amount of energy used in the pumping of water reduces our carbon emissions, which contributes to greenhouse gases, and leads to climate change.

Don’t litter. Pick up trash and throw it away.

Animals may mistake litter floating in the water as food and could choke or they may get entangled in it. 

Recycle glass, plastic, and cardboard.

Recycling helps to reduce the garbage in landfills that can take hundreds of years to break down. It also helps to preserve trees by reducing the need for new paper. Saves money as recycling saves energy it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which helps to tackle climate change.

Turn off lights and ceiling fans when you’re not in the room.

Turning your lights off can help  save energy  and money.

A ceiling fan doesn't cool the air, it only moves the air around. Turn ceiling fans on when people are using the room.

Make a composting area in your yard with your family.

Composting is a great way to reduce your family's waste, save money, and learn about nature and gardening. You'll turn your food scraps and household organic matter into fertilizer instead of sending it to a landfill. 

Plant native Florida plants with your family.

Butterflies love native plants and they can handle the Florida weather, rain or shine.


Find us online!

Want to explore more of Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary? Check out our website and connect with us on social media!


Thank you to the Community Foundation of Collier County for their support of this project. 

Story Content

Deborah Lotter

StoryMap Design

Giselle Vandrick