U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Taco Fusion in Tampa: Still Serving Lion Meat Despite Denials

People became angry in Tampa recently when it was announced that the city's Taco Fusion was serving lion meat. They also serve gazelle, kangaroo, ostrich, beaver, otter, and other animals, but it was the king of the jungle that awakened the public's ire. In the face of much criticism, the following ... More >>

Florida Man Faces Up to Five Years In Prison For Black Mamba Snake Bite Hoax

On November 21, 2011, John Kenneth Rosenbaum burst into a South Georgia hospital begging for treatment. He had puncture wounds on his arm and the words "BLACK MAMBA" scrawled in marker on his skin.But the bullsh*t bite is now coming back to haunt Rosenbaum. The 24-year-old Jacksonville resident face ... More >>

Florida's Biggest, Ugliest Bat Could Be Headed for Endangered Species List

Even ugly animals need protective love too. The Florida bonneted bat was once a common site in South Florida, but the Center for Biological Diversity believes there may be less than 300 left in the wild now. The odd looking winged mammal has only been spotted recently in 12 different sites in C ... More >>

Aristides Rodriguez, Serial Manatee Speed Zone Offender, Sentenced to Sea Cow Protection

Somewhere in Biscayne Bay there is a pod of manatees laughing their fat, mossy asses off.Aristides Lorenzo Rodriguez, 43, was sentenced to a year of probation yesterday for repeatedly violating speed limits in a manatee zone. Clearly, a federal judge Jonathan Goodman is trying to scare Rodriguez int ... More >>

Coral Reefs Are Being Decimated, All for a Few Gaudy Trinkets

Sustain, Gotham Steak, City Hall and More: Misleading Salmon Descriptions

via Flickr CCSustain Restaurant Bar has developed a brand synonymous with greener eating. Deconstructed branches line its walls and lamps in natural shapes light up its vast open space, all contributing to a signature earthy feel. The menu lists ingredients with sources and location, and the resta ... More >>

Two Plead Guilty To Selling Jaguar Skins in South Florida

​Elias Garcia Garcia and Maria Angela Plancarte, both 53-year-old residents of La Feria, Texas, have plead guilty to selling jaguar skins throughout South Florida. Jaguars are of course protected by the Endangered Species Act, and the sale of their pelts is explicitly outlawed.

Fairy Shrimp and Rainbow Snakes are Probably Extinct in Florida

​Two indigenous Florida species may have gone extinct sometime in the past few decades according to the  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. No one has seen any fairy shrimps or rainbow snakes in years. We don't want to make any assumptions based on their names, but, you know, Florida u ... More >>

Monkey Cannibals: Robert Conyers Charged With Animal Cruelty UPDATE

L.A. City Attorney's OfficeIsn't this how 28 Days Later begins?​Miami freight shipper Robert Matson Conyers was charged with animal cruelty yesterday after a tri-continental shipment of monkeys turned into a cannibalistic simian catastrophe.Guyanese animal supplier Akhtar Hussain hired Conyers to ... More >>

Clemente DiMuro, "Feather Man," Killed Anhingas for Their Plumes, Ke$ha Unharmed

Wikimedia CommonsNo Ke$has were harmed by Clemente DiMuro.​Ah, Miami. So close to the Everglades. So far from sanity.It's a dangerous combination. For instance, when poachers such as Clemente DiMuro shoot protected anhinga "snakebirds," chop off their pretty feathers, and sell them on the Internet ... More >>

Florida Tea Party Group Thinks Saving Manatees Is Part of Mass Godless Conspiracy

​Members of Florida Tea Party groups are so upset with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's efforts to save manatees that they are claiming that new rules to possibly be imposed in famous Kings Bay would not only go against the Bible, but also are part of a vast United Nations conspiracy ... More >>

Miami Blue Butterfly On Verge of Extinction But Feds Haven't Done Anything About It

​The Miami blue butterfly is one of the very few species that is only found in Southern Florida, but finding them have become increasingly rare. Once thought to have been completely killed off by Hurricane Andrew, a small population of about 50 was found in 1999. Efforts have been made to grow the ... More >>

Congrats, South Florida! You've Driven Two New Species Toward The Endangered List

Here in South Florida, we've done a number to Mother Nature that few other regions in this fine country can match. via NASAThe area outlined in yellow is considered, in scientific lingo, "totally F'd up."​In just over a century, we've dammed the Everglades, plopped whole cities down in the mi ... More >>

The Vanishing Mouse

Wake up, cat lovers!

Time Keeps on Slipping ...

Letters from the Issue of November 11-17, 2004

Public-radio lovefest, parks and mounted police, humans as panther bait

Wild and Crazy

Guess what happens when an eccentric ecologist and a couple of feisty backwoods boys claim that a rare Florida panther is on the attack

Aqua Nova

Will a starry-eyed proposal for renovating Monument Island burn out before its time?

Roe Rage

Fish eggs, fish eggs roly-poly fish eggs; fish eggs, fish eggs, eat them up, yum

Beneath the Pink Underwear

Water pollution is more serious than the WASD plan would have you believe

The Big Cypress Deal

The cover story is conservation, but the Bush boys have their hands in the taxpayers' pockets again

Something From The X-Files

They're calling the Asian snakehead "the Frankenfish"

God's Eye on the Sparrow

Should 2700 little birds be allowed to hold up the reclaiming of the Everglades?

Slaughter Alley

Big dead cats in the middle of the road -- lots of them

Forcing Out HABDI

One of South Florida's oldest families is nearing a come-from-behind victory in the battle for the Homestead Air Base

Conched Out

The queen conch, long a culinary favorite and a symbol of life in the Keys, is disappearing from local waters

Bird Is the Word

Really for the Birds

A weird government plan to help save an endangered species winds up threatening to defile the Everglades

Pond Scum

When Coral Gables officials see a tiny lake in the middle of their fair city, they think ... shopping mall!

It Isn't Easy Being Green

Homestead Air Force Base is a crucial natural habitat for a rare plant. But don't worry, they'll develop around it.

Where's the Beach?

The true story behind the beach erosion explosion is politics as usual

Playing With Fire

That roaring inferno you see was started intentionally, and if it can be kept under control, it'll do more good than harm

For the Birds

Put down the field glasses and close up the guidebooks. When Florida's top avian enthusiasts do battle, the feathers fly.

Left Out

When Everglades National Park chief Dick Ring held a feel-good camp-out in the Dry Tortugas, he really toasted some people's marshmallows

Lock a Block

An appeals court nudges convicted orangutan smuggler Matthew Block a little closer to prison

Bad to the Bone

It's sad when a manatee dies because of a careless boater. What took place on Watson Island went beyond sad.

The Mysterious Mexican Gorilla Caper

A notorious animal smuggler. Some eager buyers. A bizarre sting operation. A dark and stormy night. No wonder the jurors could hardly believe what they were hearing.

Mad Dog Bites No More

In the latest twist to the Bangkok Six orangutan-smuggling case, Matthew Block's flamboyant defense lawyer takes his own life

God's Country

Live alligators. Dead snakes. Howling owls. About the only thing the Everglades doesn't have is a bright future.

Birds Do It, Bees Do it

But is that any excuse for Matthew Block's lawyer to send Shirley McGreal a card that shows zebras doing it?

Gorilla Warfare: Part 2

Ape trader Matthew Block has been sentenced in the case of the Bangkok Six. But the monkey business continues.

Gorilla Warfare

Vilified by animal protectionists, indicted for smuggling, praised by the feds. Matthew Block surprised everyone. Maybe even himself.

Dead On Arrival, 119 Times Over

Indonesian crab-eating macaques are favored by medical researchers. But if Miami primate dealer Matthew Block's late-August shipment was bound for the lab, it never got that far.

Stinky, Crunchy, Paint-Eating Hermaphrodites

The USDA stopped the importation of giant African snails to Florida, but there were a couple left behind...

Monkey Feature