The Florida Museum of Natural History’s new app, currently available through the iTunes store, “Nature Viewing Along the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Viewing Trail,” allows users to search for 200 birds, 106 butterflies and 247 flowering plants through a variety of options including name, color, shape and size. The app provides photographs and information about each species.

The app also includes a list of 491 sites along the 2,000-mile trail which extends from the Florida Panhandle through the Keys, as well as information about habit conservation and animals and plants unique to the state.

“This app was really designed for the non-expert, but experienced nature viewers will enjoy it as well,” said Shari Ellis, Florida Museum project coordinator. “We wanted to increase appreciation of Florida’s natural environment and enhance the experience of trail visitors.”

Development of the app was funded with grants of $40,000 from the Florida Wildflower Foundation and $9,500 from the Florida Museum Associates board.

Florida Wildflower Foundation Executive Director Lisa Roberts said the app is an excellent field guide for anyone interested in plants, birds or butterflies.

“Those three are so dependent on one another and learning about the ecosystem as a whole is essential,” Roberts said.

All information and photos are stored on the user’s iPhone, meaning internet access isn’t required to use the app. Because the app requires 416MB, users will need to connect to a Wi-Fi network for the initial download. The app will be available for the iPad by the end of January and an Android version is scheduled for release in late February.

The Florida Museum developed the app with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Services entomology and nematology department and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

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Source: Shari Ellis, 352-273-2066, shellis@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

The exhibit, designed to resemble a home, includes information about energy use; ways to reduce consumption, like purchasing more efficient appliances and using power strips; climate change and its effects and more.

“It’s all about energy use and how to save it at home with simple steps,” said Tina Choe, Florida Museum exhibit developer.

The exhibit also discusses the limits of fossil fuels and alternative sources, like solar, wind and geothermal power.

“Fossil fuels are in increasingly short supply,” said Darcie MacMahon, museum assistant director of exhibits. “We need to figure out how to power our world without them and live more sustainably.”

The exhibit allows visitors to view the energy use of area homes, watch videos about residents who have taken steps to reduce their consumption and see the real-time output of the Florida Museum’s 75 kilowatt rooftop solar array, which inspired the exhibit.

Visitors may also enjoy photos and graphics with tips for saving energy and money.

“It all adds up,” MacMahon said. “Americans use an enormous amount of energy, and individuals can make a big difference in our future by making small changes.”

While developing the exhibit, museum employees learned a lot about conserving power and made small changes at home that have reduced their utility bills, MacMahon added.

“It’s great to save money while doing what’s right for the planet,” she said.

The exhibit is sponsored by Progress Energy and was created by the Florida Museum of Natural History in partnership with the University of Florida Office of Sustainability.

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Source: Darcie MacMahon, 352-273-2053, dmacmahon@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With $800,000 from the National Science Foundation, Florida Museum of Natural History conservation biologist Scott Robinson is researching bird ranges in the Andes Mountains.

Robinson is leading a team of about 20 researchers measuring ideal temperatures for different species’ survival, studying how successfully the birds nest and to what extent predators dictate their existence. With this data, scientists hope to understand which Neotropical bird species will be able to move upslope as temperatures increase with global warming.

Scott Robinson

“These are birds that are likely to be very vulnerable to climate change because they’re very specialized to a narrow climate niche,” said Robinson, Ordway Eminent Scholar at the Florida Museum. “We’re trying to determine if they’re simply living where they’re optimally adapted, or if there are competitors replacing each other. No one’s really tested that.”

During the end of the dry season, from August through November, scientists and volunteers work along the Manu Road in southeastern Peru, the location of earth’s most diverse known bird community. The area is home to more than 1,000 species, and Robinson hopes to collect data for more than 150 of them.

“We’re trying to work on a relatively undisturbed gradient – the land around this road is owned by conservation organizations, so it goes through intact forest,” Robinson said. “Here’s a chance to study the environmental needs of these species without direct human disturbance.”

Researchers determine the birds’ ideal temperature requirements with the FoxBox from Sable Systems, a portable, generator-run chamber that measures how much energy birds burn in different environments.

“These metabolic chambers regulate the airflow and temperature of birds at night when they’re sleeping,” Robinson said. “By slowly raising and lowering the temperature, we can measure the concentration of oxygen entering and elevating the chamber to see the amount of energy the bird is burning. You’re looking for the thermo-neutral zone, where the bird doesn’t have to expend any extra energy to maintain its body temperature.”

The data will help researchers understand whether species will be able nest higher on mountain slopes as temperatures rise or be forced out because of predators.

“Some of these species can just move upslope – the problem is, there’s something else up there already,” Robinson said. “Some birds will just get pushed off the top, or get squeezed in the middle of the mountain. We’re trying to figure out which species are in trouble and which can take care of themselves.”

The three-year project, funded earlier this month, also involves conservation and education outreach to local communities, including presentations promoting ecotourism and environmental awareness, Robinson said.

“As scientists, we’ve come to realize somewhat belatedly that by ignoring outreach, we’re cutting off our connection to people,” Robinson said. “People are interested in the results of science, but when it comes to actually doing science, the United States isn’t producing as many scientists as it used to, so I think we need to worry a lot about that. Any kind of sustained research and conservation in South America has to involve the people that live in those areas – they have to be a part of it and they have to want to do it.”

Mark Chapell of the University of California, Riverside, is co-principal investigator for the project. Other collaborators include Florida Museum graduate student Gustavo Londono and Jill Jankowski, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia and Florida Museum research associate. Volunteer researchers selected from around the world include students from South American universities and the University of Florida.

“Finding the nests, catching the birds, measuring their oxygen rates – this is a very, very labor-intensive project,” Robinson said. “But the great thing about birds is people love them, especially college-age people. We can get really skilled volunteers for this project, as long as we feed them and give them a place to stay, they will just be totally happy they’re working in the Andes and having a grand-old time.”

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Source: Scott Robinson, 352-273-1965, srobinson@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Danielle Torrent, dtorrent@flmnh.ufl.edu
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers are hosting educators from throughout the state for its annual “Sawfish In Peril Educator Workshop” from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. today.

As one of the few institutions tracking and protecting the endangered sawfish, the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Florida Program for Shark Research developed the workshop to help educators facilitate sawfish awareness and conservation programs in their local school districts and environmental education facilities.

“Sawfish are animals that can go extinct if we’re not very careful,” said Florida Program for Shark Research Director George Burgess. “Part of our mission here as a program is to not only conduct research on these animals, but to give them the maximum amount of protection they can receive.”

Twenty-three educators from high schools, aquariums and environmental agencies will hear presentations from a variety of researchers, participate in a stingray dissection activity and receive kits that include an instructor’s guide, teaching activities and Power Point presentations. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service is funding the workshop, and annual sawfish educator workshops are planned for at least the next two years.

“The workshop is a continuation of our overall efforts to make people aware that this is a problem and that it’s in our backyard,” Burgess said. “We have a special obligation as Floridians to work hard to save what’s left of these creatures and oversee their hopeful return.”

Because sawfish have always been recognized as an exceptionally rare animal, their decline has slipped past scientists in the last 100 years, Burgess said. Records maintained by the shark program’s National Sawfish Encounter Database help researchers understand changes in habitat. In 2010, sightings were only reported in Florida, while the sawfish’s territory in the past ranged from New York to Texas.

“We hear from commercial fishermen who have been on the water 30 years and never seen one,” said sawfish database technician John Waters, who will present range maps at the workshop. “We put out a lot of brochures, fliers, boat signs for ramps – pretty much anything we can get out to people – to let them know we’re interested so they will report the sawfish when they see them.”

Sawfish can grow to 25 feet long and their decline is mainly attributed to over-fishing and habitat destruction, Burgess said. Similar to sharks, sawfish are elasmobranches, or cartilaginous fishes, but belong in the family of rays. Sawfish have been traced in the fossil record to at least 130 million years, but information about their biology is limited because the animal became endangered before specimens could be collected for research. Scientists estimate they can live from 30 to 60 years.

The small-toothed sawfish was the first marine animal placed on the endangered species list, and thanks to information collected through the national encounter database, the large-toothed sawfish will soon be added to the list, Burgess said.

“Part of our mission here is education outreach in addition to our normal research and conservation management,” Burgess said. “Nowhere is that more important than in sawfish.”

Pre-registered participants will attend the workshop, held at Powell Hall near the intersection of Southwest 34th Street and Hull Road. For more information about sawfish or to report a sighting, visit www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/sawfish/.

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Source: George Burgess, 352-318-3812, gburgess@flmnh.ufl.edu
Cathy Bester, 352-273-1942, cbester@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Danielle Torrent, dtorrent@flmnh.ufl.edu
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

Photos available

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The fifth annual ButterflyFest at the Florida Museum of Natural History from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday features free, interactive presentations and activities the entire family will enjoy.

Visitors can listen to presentations about Project Butterfly WINGS, Honduran butterflies and moths, the Monarch Watch organization, worldwide honey bee decline and the migratory patterns of Monarchs. Gardening activities and wildflower walks as well as live butterfly releases will also be offered.

Younger visitors can enjoy arts and crafts, create their own pollinator costumes and participate in a “Pollinator Parade” through the museum. Non-profit organizations will also provide child-friendly activities.

The museum will host a butterfly-friendly plant sale and museum staff will be available to help visitors pick the perfect native nectar, host and accent plants for their gardens. All proceeds from the sale benefit the Butterfly Rainforest exhibit.

Danscompany of Gainesville, Howard Bishop Middle School Band, Objects in Motion, the University of Florida juggling club and The Sedoctives, UF’s all-female a cappella group, will perform during the festival.

Winners of the photography contest will be announced Oct. 23. Winning photos are scheduled to run in the Oct. 24 edition of The Gainesville Sun, which sponsored the contest. Other ButterflyFest sponsors include Cox Communications and GRU.

Fee-based workshops, field trips and tours that require pre-registration are also available. Workshops include: “Painting Butterflies and Moths” with award-winning artist Mindy Lighthipe, “Monarch Tagging” with keynote speaker Chip R. Taylor, “Picture-Perfect Rainforest Photography,” “Advanced Butterfly Garden Design” and a “Butterfly Rearing Workshop.” Visitors can also participate in a fieldtrip to Paynes Prairie to explore native wildlife or take a behind-the-scenes tour of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity.

The McGuire Center is the world’s largest Lepidoptera research and education facility and houses one of the world’s largest collections of butterflies and moths at more than 9 million specimens. Participants may register online at www.flmnh.ufl.edu/butterflyfest or by calling 352-273-2062.

ButterflyFest is dedicated to increasing awareness of Florida’s butterflies as fun, fascinating ambassadors to the natural world. Presentations, arts and crafts, workshops, field trips and tours will promote inquiry and provide a call to action for the conservation and preservation of backyard wildlife and habitats.

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Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact:  Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

ButterflyFest Activity Schedule
10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Oct. 23 -24

Fri. Oct. 22

8-11 a.m. Water and Wildlife field trip (fee based)

1-3 p.m. & 3-5 p.m. Monarch tagging workshop (fee based)

Sat. Oct. 23

8:30-9:30 a.m. Butterflies Behind-the-Scenes Tour (fee based)

8:30-9:30 a.m. Picture Perfect – Rainforest Photography (fee based)

10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pollinator Costume Creation

10 a.m. – 5 p.m. ButterflyFest Craft

10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Non-profit Organization Family Activities

10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Potted Butterfly Garden Activity

10:30-11 a.m. Pollinator Photography Contest Award Ceremony

11:30 a.m. – noon Butterfly Identification Bingo

11:30 a.m. Pollination Parade

12:30-1:15 p.m. Biodiversity of Butterflies and Moths of Honduras by McGuire Center Director Thomas Emmel and McGuire Center Lepidoptera Curator Jacqueline Miller

1-1:15 p.m. Live Butterfly Release

1:30 p.m. Objects in Motion (live performance)

1:30-2:30 p.m. Monarch Watch presentation by keynote speaker Chip Taylor

2 p.m. Pollination Parade

2:30-3 p.m. Butterfly Identification Bingo

2:30 p.m. Danscompany of Gainesville (live performance)

2:30-3:30 p.m. Advanced Butterfly Garden Design Workshop (fee based)

3:15-4 p.m. Worldwide Honeybee Decline presentation by Wayne “Chappie” McChesney

3:30 -3:45 p.m. Live Butterfly Release

Wildflower walks occur every hour on the hour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and last for 20 minutes

Sunday Oct. 24

8:30-9:30 a.m. Butterflies Behind-the-Scenes Tour (fee based)

8:30-9:30 a.m. Picture Perfect – Rainforest Photography (fee based)

10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pollinator Costume Creation

10 a.m. – 5 p.m. ButterflyFest Craft

10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Non-profit Organization Family Activities

10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Potted Butterfly Garden Activity

11:30 a.m. – noon Butterfly Identification Bingo

11:30 a.m. Pollination Parade

12:30-12:45 p.m. Live Butterfly Release

1 p.m. Sedoctives (live performance)

1:30-2:30 p.m. Migratory Patterns of the Monarch presentation by Chip Taylor

2 p.m. Pollination Parade

2:30-3:30 p.m. Butterfly Rearing Workshop (fee based)

2:30-3:00 p.m. Butterfly Identification Bingo

3 p.m. Howard Bishop Middle School Band (live performance)

3:30-3:45 p.m. Live Butterfly Release

Wildflower walks occur every hour on the hour from 11 a.m.to 4 p.m. and last for 20 minutes.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Museum of Natural History presents its newest galleria exhibit “The Blue Path: Protecting Florida’s Springs” from Aug. 12 through Dec. 12.

Explore the state’s spring system and water cycle that shapes the landscape through photographs, paintings and displays by north central Florida’s best artists, writers, filmmakers, educators and scientists. The exhibit examines how everyday choices can either deplete and destroy or restore the state’s water supply. It is suitable for all ages and admission is free.

Coordinated by Florida’s Eden, a nonprofit citizen initiative dedicated to protecting Florida’s natural resources and building a sustainable and prosperous economy, the exhibit launches the Blue Path grassroots campaign to protect the state’s freshwater springs. The images and displays emphasize a “conservation first” strategy to preserving Florida’s valuable water resources.

“We will only have springs and aquifer protection when the people of Florida embrace and command it. Period,” said Annie Pais, executive director of Florida’s Eden.

The exhibit is dedicated in honor of High Springs photographer Wes Skiles, who made a career of filming and photographing underwater caves and springs and died while diving off the Boynton Beach Inlet in July. The exhibit includes one of Skiles’ photographs.

“Through his photographs and films he took us places we didn’t know existed,” Pais said. Florida’s Eden hopes to travel the exhibit across Florida and bring attention to the Blue Path campaign. Visit www.TheBluePath.org for more information.

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Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Join the fun with the Florida Museum of Natural History and Harn Museum of Art during the 40th anniversary of Earth Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 24.

Located in the University of Florida Cultural Plaza, this year’s celebration includes demonstrations and activities focused on the environment and conservation. The Alachua County environmental protection department will hold a rain barrel sale outside the museums. These barrels help homeowners collect water for reuse on their property. Also, visit with local conservation groups at both museums and learn how easy it is to help preserve the planet.

At the Florida Museum of Natural History visitors may create a bird seed mosaic and view the newest Galleria exhibit, “Life on the Edge: The Story of Florida’s Nature Coast,” by Eric Zamora. Zamora uses the visual power of photography to share the story of Florida’s Nature Coast, which stretches 240 miles from St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge near Tallahassee to Northern Pasco County. Development pressure in the area has increased tremendously in recent years with the proposal of a limestone mine, nuclear power plant, two large resorts and an expressway.

Appreciate the environment and join the Harn Museum of Art for outdoor painting activities for children and families, as well as demonstrations by plein air artists Frank Barone, Aliye Cullu, Tim Malles and Sam Saxon. The Harn will also offer docent-led tours of works in the museum focused on nature. The Kanapaha Celtic Trio will play traditional Celtic music from Ireland and Scotland, celebrating nature and love for the land.

At the Harn Museum, visitors may also learn about the important role of honey bees in “Apiary Investigations.” This art installation explores the intersection between natural history, science and art, using the beehive and the honey bee as a metaphor to examine human behavior. Toward the end of the day, participants will have the opportunity to enjoy a film about a beekeeper titled “Ulee’s Gold.”

In honor of this special event, the Florida Museum will expand its weekend plant sale to include more than 50 species of native and butterfly-friendly plants. This extended selection is available 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 – 4 p.m. Sunday and is a great opportunity to make a difference by gardening with plants perfect for local pollinators.

Admission to Earth Day activities is free. For more information visit www.harn.ufl.edu or www.flmnh.ufl.edu or call 352-846-2000 or 352-392-9826.

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Writer: Patti Nunez
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu (Florida Museum of Natural History)
Tami Wroath, 352-392-9826, ext. 2116, twroath@harn.ufl.edu (Harn Museum of Art)

Earth Day Events Schedule
10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Saturday, April 24

Harn Museum of Art

10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Docent-led tours of works focusing on nature for families and children

10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Outdoor painting activity and demonstrations by plein air artists Frank Barone, Aliye Cullu, Tim Malles and Sam Saxon.

10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Art installation “Apiary Investigations” by Kelly Rogers

1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Musical performance by the Kanapaha Celtic Trio

2 – 4 p.m.
Film “Ulee’s Gold”

Florida Museum of Natural History

10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Butterfly Rainforest Plant Sale

10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Create a bird seed mosaic

10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Rain Barrel Sale – Alachua County Environmental Protection Department

10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Photography exhibit “Life on the Edge: The Story of Florida’s Nature Coast” by Eric Zamora

Community Participants located at both museums:
Alachua County Environmental Protection Department
Alachua County Office Waste Alternatives
Florida Organic Growers
Friends of Payne’s Prairie
Gainesville Regional Utilities
Keep Alachua County Beautiful
Lubee Bat Conservancy
Trashformations
Save the Frogs Day
Watershed Action Volunteers

Florida Museum of Natural History
The Florida Museum of Natural History is Florida’s state natural history museum, dedicated to understanding, preserving and interpreting biological diversity and cultural heritage. It is located near the intersection of Southwest 34th Street and Hull Road in the University of Florida Cultural Plaza in Gainesville. Hours are 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Butterfly Rainforest admission is $9.50 for adults ($8 Fla. residents) and $5 for children ages 3-12. Prices subject to change. For more information, including directions and parking, visit www.flmnh.ufl.edu or call 352-846-2000.

Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art
The Harn Museum of Art is an integral part of the University of Florida. The museum’s permanent collection holds nearly 7,000 works, including African, Asian, modern and contemporary art and photography. The museum enhances the university’s activities and serves a culturally diverse audience through the exhibition of works of art and educational programming. Admission is free. Museum hours are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Parking is free on weekends. The Camellia Court Cafe is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information call 352-392-9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.

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The program educates professionals from natural history museums, zoos and botanical gardens about butterfly conservation and recovery strategies. The workshop is the second in a series of five programs over two years that include intensive laboratory and field training sessions. Participants will work side-by-side with staff from the Florida Museum and other partner organizations.

“We are extremely excited about the tremendous diversity of program participants and institutions,” said Jaret Daniels, assistant curator of Lepidoptera for the Florida Museum McGuire Center of Lepidoptera and Biodiversity and one of the workshop leaders. “The corresponding synergy will go a long way to help strengthen imperiled butterfly conservation and awareness efforts nationwide.”

The program is providing scholarships for attendees, which allows participation from a variety of small and large institutions. The Imperiled Butterfly Conservation and Management program is a partnership between the Florida Museum, Chicago Academy of Sciences’, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (Chicago), Oregon Zoo, Toledo Zoo, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Miami), the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and the Butterfly Conservation Initiative, a coalition of state and federal organizations based at the Florida Museum working to preserve North American butterflies and their habitats.

Each workshop is being held at a partner organization with an established butterfly conservation or reintroduction program.

Workshop participants will learn about the Florida Museum Miami Blue project, aimed at reestablishing populations of the endangered butterfly in previous native ranges in south Florida. The first workshop was held July 13-16 at the Toledo Zoo. The remaining workshops are planned for March 22-25, 2010, at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; June 24-27, 2010, at the Oregon Zoo; and June 20-24, 2011, at the Chicago Academy of Sciences.

For more information call 352-846-2000 or visit www.flmnh.ufl.edu.

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Source: Jaret Daniels, 352-273-2022, jdaniels@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Morgan Lamborn
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

The Harn Museum of Art is offering a number of programming opportunities, including an informative lecture at 11:30 a.m. about how to make your household energy efficient.

At 12:30 p.m., Tom Southall, curator of photography, will give a gallery talk about “Landscape Perspectives: Highlights from the Photography Collection,” discussing the beauty of the natural world and aspects of human interactions with the land.

Both museums are offering art opportunities for visitors. At the Florida Museum, visitors can create CD clocks and fashion recycled accessories such as newspaper hats and paper tube bracelets. Guest artist Peter Carolin will be plein air painting outside the Harn Museum of Art as part of the museum’s Family Day. Visitors can paint with him, make jewelry with recycled-paper beads or create nature rubbings.

The afternoon will also feature artistic performances by two local groups. At 1:30 p.m. the Kanapaha Celtic Trio will engage visitors with a musical performance. Dancers from the 5.6.7.8. Dance Studio will perform at 2 p.m.

Visitors who want to get outside and enjoy nature can participate in tours of the University of Florida Natural Area Teaching Laboratory, an outdoor space behind the Florida Museum dedicated to ecology education. Tours are available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will begin in the courtyard between the two museums.

Local environmental organizations also will present information at both museums on living a sustainable lifestyle and taking active steps to protect the environment. The Harn Museum and the Florida Museum of Natural History are also partnering with other University of Florida units, such as the Office of Sustainability and the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, to provide environmental information to visitors.

Visitors may purchase organic food from the Jones Eastside Eatery at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Admission is free. For more information about the Earth Day events, visit www.harn.ufl.edu or www.flmnh.ufl.edu.

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Media contacts: Paul Ramey (Florida Museum), 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu
Tami Wroath (Harn), 352-392-9826, twroath@harn.ufl.edu

Schedule

11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Outside the museums
Natural Area Teaching Laboratory Tours

11:30 a.m. – noon
Harn Museum of Art
Lecture by Drops and Watts representative

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Harn Museum of Art
Gallery Talk with Harn Museum of Art Curator of Photography Tom Southall

1 – 4 p.m.
Harn Museum of Art
Plein air painting with guest artist Peter Carolin

1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Harn Museum of Art
Musical performance by Kanapaha Celtic Trio

2 – 3 p.m.
Harn Museum of Art
Dance performance by dancers from the 5.6.7.8. Dance Studio

Booth Participants
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Harn Museum of Art
Alachua County Environmental Protection Department/UF Office of Sustainability
Alachua County Public Works, Waste Alternatives
Friends of Payne’s Prairie

10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Florida Museum of Natural History
Alachua Conservation Trust
Current Problems, Inc.
Drops and Watts
Florida Organic Growers
Lubee Bat Conservancy
Watershed Action Volunteers
WUFT’s “Living Green”
UF/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences biogas group

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida, keeper of the world’s shark attack records, is also now overseeing a national records collection for another toothy marine predator: the sawfish.

Distinguished by a long rostrum or “saw” that makes it a popular curio item and gives it its name, the sawfish has become a historical and cultural icon that is rapidly disappearing, said George Burgess, a UF ichthyologist and curator of both the International Shark Attack File and the newly expanded National Sawfish Encounter Database.

“Postcards from the turn of the 20th century often depicted this so-called monster that inhabited Florida waters, and if one goes back and looks at newspaper accounts from places outside Florida, every time a sawfish was caught it made the papers,” he said. “Today, it’s difficult to find a bar in South Florida that doesn’t have a sawfish ‘saw’ hanging on the wall.”

An important part of Florida’s fauna, the sawfish once swam in bays, lagoons and rivers extending from New York to the Rio Grande, Burgess said. Today, its American range has shrunk to Florida and its declining numbers have made it the first species of marine fish to be placed on the list of federally endangered species, he said.

Burgess and a team of scientists at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus plan to use information from the sawfish database to further enhance a management plan developed to help speed the species’ recovery.

The National Sawfish Encounter Database is a compendium of all known historical and current records of sawfish in the United States, Burgess said. Databases formerly housed with the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and two private sawfish enthusiasts are being combined with existing Florida Museum of Natural History records, he said.

Data from the collections will reveal the known distribution of sawfish throughout the United States, he said. Burgess plans to add to it new research results as he and his team monitor the abundance of sawfish and use tags to track their movements within the Indian River Lagoon and Banana River along Florida’s east coast.

This area is critical to the recovery of the once widespread species, Burgess said. Historically, the region was full of sawfish, but the numbers drastically declined as development encroached on the creature’s coastal habitat and its encounters with humans rose, he said.

“Sawfish are disappearing all over the world for basically the same reason, which is that their big saws snag very easily in fishing nets,” he said. “They have become despised as net wreckers because obviously a fisherman doesn’t like getting one in his net. So over the years most sawfish that were captured were killed.”

Even those sawfish lucky enough to be tossed back into the water were often released without their saws, as people came to value these body parts as curio items, Burgess said.

Although the sawfish’s body resembles a shark, the sawfish belongs to a class of fish called rays. Its elongated blade-like snout is used to stun and kill prey.

“Sawfish get lots of ooh’s and aah’s because humans tend to gravitate to the more charismatic megafauna, as it is characterized,” he said. “We place more values on whales than their kin the field mice or the brown-eyed seal more than we do some wood rat.”

Part of the sawfish’s appeal may also be its increasing rarity, said Burgess, who estimates there are only a few thousand sawfish left in Florida.

It takes longer for the sawfish population to recover than other species because of its unusually slow growth, late onset of sexual maturity and low reproductive potential, Burgess said. Although the sawfish has a long life span of 30 years or more, it is a live-bearer. As such, it has a prolonged gestation period and produces very few young, he said.

Anyone who sees a sawfish is asked to contact Burgess’s team at 352-392-2360 or sawfish@flmnh.ufl.edu so they can record the sighting’s location. Mapping the sawfish’s distribution is important in fine-tuning a management plan developed to protect the endangered species, he said.

More information about how to file a sawfish sighting report and what kind of details to include can be obtained from the museum’s Web site at http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/sawfish/.

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Source: George Burgess, 352-392-2360, gburgess@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Cathy Keen, ckeen@ufl.edu
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu