Orlando, Florida coyotes

Eastern coyote
(Orlando, FL 2/12)
Photo: Jack Van Niel

Mom and Dad spend the winter in Florida and Dad brought a Cuddeback Capture with him this year. After a week of nothing, he captured a few nice coyote images. Coyotes are relative newcomers to Florida, with some sources citing an arrival date of the 1970s to 1980s. They have now essentially stretched across the entire state. I wasn't able to find any information that definitively said that these Florida 'yotes are smaller than their NY relatives, but I would expect that to be the case. Compare this photo of a Florida coyote to the Upstate New York coyote photo posted below. Some of the difference in wiehgt may be apparent -- those Florida canines have a thinner coat. But some of it sure seems to be meat.

Eastern coyote
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/12)

Eastern coyote
(Orlando, FL 2/12)
Photo: Jack Van Niel

Yes Virginia, you do have sandy claws...

I am still in Florida and checked the camera trap this morning to find a single raccoon photo and a single opossum. There is only one species of opossum in North America, so we can get away without worrying about its full name. This is the Virginia Opossum. There are several different kinds of opossums in Central and South America. "Virginia" has spread her way north all the way to Canada, largely because of human changes to the landscape. We have provided food, shelter and additional warmth in the winter. The opossum in this photo is right at home in the warmer climate of Florida.

Virginia Opossum, Orlando FL (4/11)

The opossum is a little too close to the camera and the flash washed out the all-white face. But check out that hind foot. The opossum has an opposable "big toe" instead of thumb. I tell my students that they hitchhike and rate movies with their feet :) Interestingly, that big toe has no nail at all while the other toes have very sharp ones.

I have one more night here. Maybe Virginia will come back and leave some more images on my camera and tracks on the sandy bank.

Greetings from Sunny Florida!

I am at a conference in Orlando Florida for the first half of the week. What makes this even nicer is that my parents rent a house here each winter, so I am staying with them. I brought a trail camera in hopes of catching something different and set it along a little drainage near my parent's house. Last night yielded three photos of raccoon. Here is the best of them:

Raccoon, Orlando Florida (4/11)

Raccoons are called "plantigrade" because they walk on their entire foot -- heel, sole and toes. This usually sounds strange to many people because they just never thought of walking any other way. But many familiar animals do it very differently. Dogs, cats and birds walk on their toes and the balls of their feet ("digitigrade") and animals like deer, antelopes and pigs are "unguligrade", meaning they walk on their tippy toes (making hooves really just very cool toe nails). Digitigrade and unguligrade animals are really built more for speed than plantigrade animals.

The word plantigrade comes from the fact that the sole of the foot is called the plantar region. There are warts that people can get on the soles of their feet, I often hear them referred to as "planter's warts", thinking that they have something to do with the way the foot strikes the shovel. In fact, they are called "plantar warts" due to their location on the foot.

Ok! I have to run to the conference! SInce I am built to walk, I need to leave plenty of time...