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03/01/2006
Rogue Panther and Evil Weevil
No new column this week. Dr. Bortrum is recuperating from his
vacation in Florida. New column will be posted on or before
March 8, 2006.
At last! The frigid (for Southwest Florida) weather is gone and
it’s back to walking on the beach without sweatshirt and jacket.
The allure of those predawn walks has returned. For example, on
Monday three things attracted my attention. First, I encountered
a very attractive blond (think Christie Brinkley) at the water’s
edge. Normally, I would have passed by with a cheery hello but
Christie was holding the largest conch shell I’ve ever seen on
Marco’s beach. Not only that but the conch was still alive. It
easily was large enough to make bowls of conch chowder for 20
people, in my opinion. I concurred with Christie’s decision to
throw the conch back to survive another day, hopefully.
Farther down the beach there was something that really was
unusual. There was a very large sea turtle resembling one of
those you expect in the Galapagos. Its shell was at least three,
possibly four feet in diameter but, sadly, the back of its shell was
broken off, probably due to an encounter with a boat. I remarked
in my first column from Marco that I hadn’t seen many birds in
my earlier walks. However, on my return back up the beach,
there were hundreds of all types of birds gathered around the
turtle, which was either dead or in serious trouble. It was gone
the next day.
I’ve also seen more familiar faces on the beach, always
comforting when you reach my age and find that others of your
vintage are still alive and kicking. In another venue, we also saw
a familiar fowl. Last year I mentioned that we were at a concert
in the park here and that a Muscovy duck flew into the pavilion
and sat in the rafters, seemingly enjoying the music. On Sunday,
we went to another concert and there was the Muscovy duck,
strolling up near the Marco Strummers as they practiced and then
returning up to the rafters to enjoy the show. Unfortunately, the
Strummers had difficulty with their sound system and the initial
numbers were coming across in a muddied sound that didn’t do
justice to either the banjos or the horns. The duck, obviously a
critic, flew off past the performers in apparent disapproval! The
conductor, whether in response to the duck’s critique or not, did
adjust the sound system and the quality was much improved.
The movie “The Pink Panther” arrived at the local theater and I
was tempted to go see it. However, even though I enjoy Steve
Martin, why see a remake of a movie that was perfect with Peter
Sellers? The reviewers seem to agree. However, the movie title
reminds me of a big environmental issue here in Southwest
Florida. In the past three weeks, I’ve seen at least four or five
articles in the local papers devoted to Don Juan. It seems that
Don, weighing in at 130 pounds, has fathered some 30 offspring,
I’m assuming not all with the same female; hence the moniker
Don Juan.
But it’s not his sexual prowess that concerns residents and
farmers in the area; it’s Don’s tendency to kill and eat
domesticated animals and chickens and turkeys. Some time ago,
Don was apprehended but released, as I recall, about 20 miles
from the scenes of his crimes. Yes, Don Juan is a panther, an
endangered species here in Florida. However, within the past
week or so, Don returned to this area and again began dining on
local fowl. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when he
attacked a hog in the small town of Copeland. If Don is willing
to go after a hog, there is the possibility that he might also harm
small children.
Accordingly, he was recaptured and tranquilized and the last I
heard officials were deciding whether to confine him or to turn
him loose again in some more distant locale. As I was getting
ready to post this column, I noticed on the front page of the
Naples paper an article by Jeremy Cox reporting that Don Juan,
more formally known as No. 79, is now being housed in Tampa’s
Busch Gardens out of public view. Actually, Don may be lucky
that he was captured and will be kept in captivity. At 10 years
old, he’s losing his strength and chances are he would soon be
challenged and probably killed by a younger panther seeking
dominance. Panthers normally live about 15 years so Don may
have five years left. And his fathering days might not be over.
There’s talk that his sperm might be used to generate more
panther kittens.
Don’s plight illustrates the problem of trying to save endangered
animals in an environment in which we humans are continuously
encroaching on the animals’ habitats. On the 4-lane highway
leading from Marco Island to Interstate 75, there’s a sign
“Panther Crossing”. With cars shuttling along at 55 to 60 mph, I
don’t give a panther too much chance of crossing that road
unharmed. The situation reminded me of our problems with
bears back in New Jersey and the hue and cry that ensued when it
was decided to have a bear hunt. I thought that at least Florida
doesn’t have to worry about bears. Wrong! An article last week
in the Naples Daily News reported that last year in Florida cars
killed a record number of 139 black bears.
Along similar lines, about 15 years ago, my wife and I took a
cruise to Alaska, where we marveled at the presence of bald
eagles, an endangered species at the time. Last week, I believe it
was on a CBS Early Show, there was a segment on Homer,
Alaska and how the eagles have taken over the place. There are
so many of them now that they’ve become a real nuisance and
some are proposing an eagle hunt to winnow down the number.
As you can imagine, that proposal caused an uproar. At this
point, a compromise solution is a ban on feeding the birds. One
colorful Homer resident, the “eagle lady”, is grandmothered out
of the ban – she’s been feeding fish to the eagles for many years.
Back in Florida, nobody wants to protect an alien from Central
America, the “evil weevil”. I found an article about this weevil
by Virginia Smith in the February 13 Naples Daily News. As
with so many other alien species that find a new habitat, there are
no natural enemies to keep the alien under control. The alien can
go after its own choice of food unhindered and in turn cause that
species to become endangered. The evil weevil’s choice is the
air plant, a member of the bromeliad family. Some type of
bromeliad attaches itself to virtually every tree in Florida, one
example being Spanish moss. Spanish moss is one air plant that
the evil weevil doesn’t care for but most of the rest are fair game.
The article quotes University of Florida entomologist, J. Howard
Frank, as saying that without these air plants Florida would be
North Carolina.
Frank and his colleagues have spent years searching for
something that would control the weevil and they did find a
previously unknown species of fly that does the trick down in
Honduras. The flies lay their eggs and the maggots end up inside
the weevils eating their insides. It was seven years ago when
they found this fly. Unfortunately, when they brought the flies
here to Florida, where they contained them in a special lab for
study, the flies didn’t survive in spite of being provided with
everything Frank thought would please them. The quest goes on
for either another weevil enemy or some way to keep those flies
alive.
My wife just came back from a walk on the beach and said that
she encountered two small snakes on the walkway to our condo.
I hope they aren’t baby pythons! I believe it was last year that I
wrote about pythons roaming the nearby Everglades. The alien
pythons are flourishing there after being released by pet owners
when they found the snakes harder to handle than anticipated.
Hey, if those pythons swim over to Marco, I’m through with
predawn walks!
Allen F. Bortrum
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