The Florida Roundup - Live from Zoo Miami: Housing affordability, government spending and invasive species

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we went to Zoo Miami for a special show with a live studio audience. First, we spoke with Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava about Florida’s condo crisis, local government spending and immigration (01:20). Then, we were joined by Dr. Frank Ridgley, the head of the Conservation and Research Department at Zoo Miami (20:38). And later, we met and learned about a few animals (37:58).

Thank you. Covering Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for all Floridians looking to explore health care coverage options within the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace. Help is available at 877-813-915 or at coveringflorida.org. Thank you. All right. Good afternoon and welcome to the Florida Roundup. My name is Tom Hudson. We are live from Zoo Miami today with an in-person outside the Blue Miami sunshine.

Welcome everybody to Zoo Miami and the Florida Roundup. Wonderful to have you with us here today. Great to have you here. Our musical guest for the hour, Bob Onnin, and the side effects. Wonderful to have you along for the hour as well, Bob and Dr. Carl and Bruce with us. We have a terrific program here as we are live in front of the flamingos at Zoo Miami will be talking about

invasive species with the veterinarian who has done surgery on pythons to help track them who has iguanas in their backyard here in Dade County. Yeah, who about peacocks peacocks too? Yeah, OK, well we'll talk about efforts to try to control those invasive species and for those of you listening not be able to join us in person, you got a question about invasive species, you can email us now

radio at the floridaroundup.org. We brought our inbox with us here to the zoo. It is radio at the floridaroundup.org. But first, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniella Levine-Cava is along with us. Madam Mayor, welcome to Zoo Miami and the Fort Durando. Wow, thank you so much, Tom. And Zoo Miami is part of our wonderful parks system here, and so I am mayor of this zoo. You're mayor of this zoo. How about that?

There you go. Well, let's talk about some serious news here because the world is full of serious news and you as a top elected official here in Dade County and really the state of Florida. This week, Republicans and Democrats on the County Commission voted for a proclamation urging the Trump administration to keep all temporary protected status declarations for Venezuelans. What are your thoughts on this urging by the County Commission here in Florida with as many Venezuelans who are represented in this community? Well, first, let me say I'm very proud that we are a welcoming community.

I'm proud that we have the largest population of Venezuelan Americans in the country and of course the vast majority have been here for a while and working and contributing so they've escaped the Maduro regime. They like so many fleeing dictatorships and oppression looking for freedom and democracy so it is important as well that we protect our southern border. We have to have our security in place and we need to deport criminals, no question about that. So I would say for the population that has TPS, it's not the time to turn our backs

on those who followed the process to get into this country legally. And it doesn't solve the problem, it will only make it worse. The Secretary of Homeland Security has made this announcement and the first early expiration could come as soon as April with the potentially tens of thousands of folks who reside in Miami Dade County who have received temporary protected status. What does that mean for them? What does it mean

for the community? Obviously, they're very concerned, a lot of fear in the community. And I know that many have come to their aid. We have our congressional delegation, Republican delegation that has spoken up and said, Please reconsider the Venezuelan situation, especially. So there's still time for the administration to change its mind, and we're hopeful that they will. And are you aware of kind of any active conversations with that congressional delegation toward the White House as they are trying to perhaps have the administration cancel that early expiration? Well they've put their names on that position so they've gone public

and of course now we have our State Department leader Marco Rubio our former Well, they've put their names on that position, so they've gone public. And of course, now we have our State Department leader, Marco Rubio, our former U.S. Senator here and former state rep. And I, you know, he hasn't officially weighed in, but I'm sure they're all having conversations. We should point out that it's the flamingos behind us that are making some of that noise, as well as the audience in front of us. They're protesting for sure. It is a flamboyance of flamingos,

and yes, they are pink after all. Let's move to another serious topic, which is the condominium crisis. That was triggered, of course, by the tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside just a little bit more than three years ago. Miami-Dade County has required buildings 40 years old and older to be re certified for a good number of years. That's always been the case. Now

versions of that essentially are the case for the entire state. Now, what should the others, you know, counties, what can you tell other leaders who are dealing with this building inspection milestone certifications from your experience being the only place that that has been the rule of law for better than 20 decades, 20 years. Well, we got religion with Hurricane Andrew, and of course we're here in South Dade that was devastated by Hurricane Andrew especially, and we tightened our codes,

and so we are really the model for what the state did. But we have gone even further. Now we've created a registry for all condominiums that you have to put out your reports, your budget, your leadership. It was very hard to get that information before. And I think it contributed to people not wanting to pay those into those reserves. And without the reserves, you can't maintain the property. And obviously, we've seen what happens when you don't. We've also created something very unique that is being looked at across the state. We have funds through our surtax program that allows us to provide zero interest loans for up to 40 years for $50,000 maximum per household and over a thousand have already taken advantage of that and those that money can be used for

ongoing monthly assessments or special assessments that are special assessment I see because again people maybe don't have the means they haven't set aside those savings they in the past It hasn't been really prioritized. So you have to be up to 130%, I think, area median income. So it does cover people essentially in our working and middle class as well. There has been some talk about some kind of state loan program to help with special assessments of owners of what are called vintage condos now. These are condominiums subject to these post-surfside reforms. What are some suggestions you might have or conversations you might have with legislators

who are looking at either some additional reforms or some additional rules to help address what is this growing crisis for older owners? So I've spoken to many of our legislators about that. Of course, they are concerned that people might try to take advantage of it somehow or another. But truthfully, there's always safeguards that can be put in place. And the consequence of not helping these people is that the condo vultures come in. If people can't afford to maintain this property, then people are going to be pushed out, the

buildings will be purchased, they'll be knocked down, and we will lose what exists of a middle income home market. So it's really essential for our future for the well being of our residents that we have this kind of relief. We're speaking with Daniela Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami Dade County. We're live from Zoo Miami here on this Friday on the Florida Roundup talking about the condominium crisis, which is really centered in South Florida. When we're talking about condominiums, it certainly is concentrated in South Florida, but the rest of the state also is dealing with this.

And we've seen this in the Sarasota area, Tampa area, the Space Coast as well in Southwest Florida. Do the reforms themselves that were put into place need to be reformed, particularly the milestone inspections and the requirement that these condominium associations now begin to put aside money for regular maintenance. So some felt that the requirement came up too quickly and without really time to build up those reserves. And as I said, it did create the opportunity for the vultures to swoop in in case you hear them in the background. Those are the flamingos. but yes, a bird of another feather, so to speak.

So I do think we have to, again, think about the bigger picture. Is it our intention to force people out of their homes, or is it our intention to maintain housing as safe? With that, I think it's important that we reconsider perhaps some of the aggressive timelines. Reconsider some of the aggressive timelines. Reconsider some of the aggressive timelines. So it sounds like you would you would be in favor of perhaps having the deadlines further out, although the deadlines already passed. This is the first. Yes, the deadline has passed.

And certainly quite a few have missed it. Right. So what does that mean? What are the consequences? So, again, I would not want it to be as a result that people would now be losing their homes and consequently buildings would be subject to not just renovation but being knocked down. So this is the first full year of these reforms that were put in place after the surfside collapse. Do you think, Madam Mayor, that local governments have the proper jurisdiction for any accountability to ensure that homeowner associations are following these reforms as well as other legal rules that they have to follow? So the regulation of condominiums is largely reserved to the state and the things that we were able to do locally were kind of carve-outs like basically

more transparency, more disclosure. The fact that it wasn't possible before if you were trying to buy a condo to find out anything about the history of repairs or who was making decisions or the budget that was really contrary to good public policy and disclosure to purchasers. So we were able to do that locally and enforce it locally. I think we've heard that the folks in Tallahassee and the Department of Professional Regulation I think are inadequately staffed. Now, some additional staff was supported in last year's state budget, but we want to be sure that if the state is going to be the main regulator, that they have what they need

to enforce it. The governor was in Miami-Dade County this week announcing insurance premiums for Citizens Property Insurance, the state the state backed insurance company. Uh, there's a lot about this. I'll be perfectly honest with you, madam mayor. That's not clear to me about exactly the type of insurance that may see policy rates drop. 150,000 homes in Miami Dade County have citizens property insurance for some kind of coverage. What's been the impact of the larger insurance crisis on the condominium crisis that this community has been experiencing?

Clearly those things are very linked. The cost is not just of the repairs and the maintenance fund, but the insurance that is so out of sight and so difficult to obtain. And we do have an insurance crisis here. I had my office convene an insurance roundtable. We included people from the state insurance commission. We had the reinsurance market and local advocates and insurance companies. And we came up with some ideas, but again, it's all regulated through the state.

So people have thought that the state might be tougher on insurance companies, make more requirements for them to do business in Florida, and then I guess the alternative is if they do that maybe they'll pull out of the market. I was horrified to see a story about Los Angeles where a certain company that was insuring more than others and they pulled out just shortly before this major fire. And everyone was in the state market, which had much smaller returns.

The housing affordability has been a challenge in Miami-Dade County for a number of years, well before you were elected. It truly is a statewide issue now. You're seeing this being paid some attention by local regulators and local elected officials and state regulators and state officials as well. You have done a lot of funding, a lot of public funding directed toward

housing affordability in Dade County. You've doubled that budget during your administration. First of all, where does that additional money come from? So we do have this dedicated fee, the SIRTax, that is- Which is charged on what? On all commercial transactions of land, real estate. Real estate tax, gotcha. Yeah, so it's packaged in the deal,

and then we have those funds, and that was approved by the state legislature, and I believe we're the only ones in the state that actually have this program. And that as well as the source for the condominium special assessment loans. So it gives us a lot of flexibility that other places don't have. But as well, we've been very creative with federal dollars. We've even given grants to multi-tenant owners to renovate instead

of knocking down and rebuilding so we can preserve the naturally occurring affordable housing or NOAA. We've subsidized through our local dollars as well as federal and state. And we've brought prices into some stabilization. Rents are not going up at the same rate. It's a very modest. Home prices are stabilizing as well. So as we increase supply with doubling down on the investment, there is some normalization. You mentioned federal dollars there. We've seen within the last couple of weeks with the new administration, federal spending to be a significant focus of this new administration,

to put it mildly and diplomatically. How sustainable are some of the housing affordability initiatives that you have given the precarious nature of federal funding? Well, I think the good news for us is that housing has become a universal issue. So it's not just affecting those who are at the lowest end of the spectrum, but also the middle class. And we know we have a housing shortage countrywide. So, you know, it was expressed that we want to have more public-private partnerships, and that's for the good if we can find ways

to incentivize. The nominee for Housing and Urban Development has spoken favorably about Section 8, which is one of the major programs. We did receive 5,000 additional Section 8 vouchers. Of course, 130,000 people applied for those 5,000. Significant. Right. We also received 7,500 additional public housing slots. One of the things I've done is renovated public housing units to make them habitable.

So I don't have the number at hand, but when I heard it, I was very impressed. We're talking significant in the thousands of units that had not been available because waiting for a renovation and the RAD program, which mixed private and public. But in the meantime, the demand is so great. And also, we're prioritizing homeless. We know, we do such a good job and we have dedicated funding

for our homeless population to put them in transitional housing. We're below, we're at like 856 or something was the latest count of homeless on the street, which is unprecedented in this country. I suspect a lot of folks may be calling Miami-Dade from other places in the state. They are coming. Well, now that there's the state law that puts some liability on local governments if they're not addressing encampments and whatnot. Exactly. I do want to ask you about spending. This is a focus of your administration and your state of the county address that you made here in Miami-Dade County. Just within the last week you talked about driving efficiencies, streamlining

operations, and ensuring the highest return on taxpayer dollars. About 8% of the county's budget by my count comes from federal and state sources. Are you anticipating a decrease in that contribution? Well, we did receive extraordinary support from the infrastructure bills and of course that money has gone away. So already we're expecting a diminution. As far as competitive grants, some of them that we've received, about 15% are in the category of more discretionary. And so we're watching closely to see can we maintain those grants. Those that have already been signed, sealed and delivered, we're watching closely to see can we maintain those grants those that have already been signed sealed and delivered we're counting on continuing

But you know it remains to be seen how our local governments Balancing the uncertainty from the federal government and the federal spending and some of the revenue pressures as we mentioned property price Increases have slowed down so presumably the increase of property tax revenue will likely slow down down so presumably the increase of property tax will likely slow down. This is going to be a very challenging budget year and looking ahead we were buoyed up during my first term with the federal relief dollars with the unprecedented growth in our property values and tax base and we also now have the five constitutional officers, each of which are setting up their own infrastructure. Right. For the first time Miami has an elected, not first time, first time in better than

a generation, Miami has an elected sheriff. Yes. You used to be the sheriff. I was. But that was then split up. I do want to ask you one quick question here in our final moment together, Madam Mayor. And it is about a local real estate lawyer who represents the commercial interests of the president here in this county has Apparently toured Florida International University at about a possible presidential library for President Trump at FIU

Would you welcome something like that in this community? Well, I think every president gets a presidential library and we would be proud to have one here in Miami Dade County dare I ask you about 2026 or 2028 plans? I am very hyper focused Tom. I've just come into my second term. We have a lot to do. We're focusing on building trust and efficiency and government. We're focused on our environment, our economy, our infrastructure and our community well-being. Madam Mayor, thank you for spending time with us here in front of the flamingos. Great to have you here.

The mayor of the zoo. Zoo Miami. Those flamingos too. Mayor, Janiella Levine-Capa, the mayor of Miami-Dade County here live, Florida Roundup from Zoo Miami. Stick with us. Iguanas, peacocks, pythons, invasive species in Florida. Email your questions, radio at thefloridaroundup.org.

Radio at thefloridaroundup.org radio at the floridaroundup.org or we've got a roving microphone here. Raise your hand if you have a question in the audience about invasive species. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Woo! ["The Florida Roundup"]

Headed down south to the land of the pine. Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music

Music Music Music Music options within the federal health insurance marketplace. Help is available at 877-813-915 or at coveringflorida.org. We're live from Zoo Miami this week on the Florida Roundup across the Sunshine State and the Peninsula in the Panhandle. Great to be along with you. My name is Tom Hudson.

Our musical guest this hour, Bob Bonnet, and the side effects, the cure for the side effects is more harmonica, Bruce, more harmonica. We need a Dr. Carl on bass and Bob on guitar and vocals. Great to have you. Next week on this program, what do you love and what do you love to hate about Florida? This time of year, we're usually bragging to our friends up north, right? We walk outside and we look out and we say this is why we live here. We have umbrellas for the sunshine today at Zoo Miami on this beautiful Miami blue sky. This is why we live here. This is why we stay.

Sure, there's plenty of love about Florida. The sun, the sand, the civility? Maybe not. There's plenty to love to hate too. The traffic, the prices, and yes, even the weather sometimes. So next week on this program, it is Valentine's Day in one week. That's a reminder for you. We will be hearing from you about what you love and what you love to hate about Florida. You can email us those thoughts radio at the Florida roundup.org. We may use those stories next week. Today we are live from the zoo here in front of the pink flamingos, Miami, the only place where I have been in a traffic jam caused by peacocks and about the pink flamingos. Miami, the only place where I have been in a traffic jam caused by peacocks and about the rest of you. But

it's this time of year that we see those males unfurl their feathers with shades of blue and green and copper, hoping to find a mate. And they are beautiful, aren't they? For those of us who see them on the side of the road or right in front of our cars sometimes, but they are noisy and they are messy and they pay no mind to traffic and in South Florida they are also protected by law. They're also not native. Peacocks are one of the many invasive species that have moved in. Iguanas, lionfish, even feral hogs, Cuban tree frogs.

Boy, there's a lot of them. These critters cost Florida tens of millions of dollars each year, and some have remade ecosystems to support themselves and not the native species. So your experience with living with an invasive animal, let us know. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org, or if you have a question, raise your hand and one of our producers will come along and grab you here. Dr. Frank Ridgely is with us now live at the zoo. He's the head of conservation and research at the zoo. Dr. Frank, welcome the program. Nice to have you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. And welcome again to beautiful Sioux Miami. Oh it is a terrific place here as we're squeezed

between the flamingos and our crowd. Describe the scope of invasive species, the scope of the challenge that it presents to Florida. Oh I mean it is a gigantic problem in this state. We have more invasive reptile amphibians than any other place in the world. And like you said, the numbers of dollars that are spent or lost are staggering in this state. So it's a major problem.

So where is it an issue? Is it across the peninsula in Panhandle or is it concentrated in certain locations? No, it's across the entire state of Florida. And, you know, invasive species are non-native species. Not every non-native species is invasive, but all invasive species are non-native. And they cause either economic harm, environmental harm, cultural harm, or human health concerns. So what are some of the direct costs of these species who are not invited here but are causing this harm? What's the direct cost to the public? Well I mean the ones that are easily

measurable are the agricultural costs. It costs like you said tens of millions of dollars to our agricultural industry from invasive species. The other ones are hard to measure, you know know environmental costs but we do know that something like a third of our biomass and plants in the state are invasive species. A third? Yeah. A third. Wow that's a tremendous number. Why so many in Florida? What is it about this place? Well we like to say everyone likes to live in South Florida right? We have this environment that's warm and welcoming. And especially in South Florida, we're at the southern end of the temperate zone and we're at the northern end of the tropical zone.

So many different species can survive here. And we don't have harsh winters. We don't have freezes to kill off some of them. Well, I'll not here tell the folks up in Pensacola that eight inches of snow recently. Eight inches of snow. Can't forget about it. Yeah. Even snowed in Florida. By the way, does that have an impact on non-native species? I'm sure it does directly. Does it help maybe not eradicate them but reduce them? We wish for that. Yeah, in the southern part of the state we wish for that polar vortex to reach all the way down, right? We had some historic freezes I think in 2010-2011

and it really did hit back a lot of those invasive species both plants and animals. So I think the evasive if there's if there's a poster child for the invasive species in Florida it's the Burmese python. The Burmese python. Everyone knows about that. The Burmese python. But there's another python and another big constrictor snake that is out in the wilds of Florida. We have two more. A little known, we have the North African rock python that's established west of Miami, and then we have the boa constrictor that's on the east coast of this area. So I think I know the answer to this question, and it's probably intuitive and common sense, but how did they get here?

Well, about 80% of all invasive animals were through the pet trade. So the exotic pet trade in some cases legal or illegal or both? Probably both and you know some were introduced intentionally and some weren't but you know a big problem we have too are hurricanes. So you have enthusiasts who keep these animals and you have hurricanes that cause damage and that can cause unintentional release. So what's the proper ownership if you have an exotic pet to ensure that it is not out in the wild in Florida and reproducing in a non-native way and affecting the native species? Yeah, we encourage

responsible pet ownership. So you want to make sure it's contained, make sure it can't escape, and never ever release anything non-native out into the wild. Not only is it illegal, you can just see the damages that it can cause to state through those staggering numbers. Any success in eradicating an invasive species that had taken home here? It's not all doom and gloom. So there's some good news. Yeah, there are.

So there was an invasive rat called the Gambian Pouch Rat down in the Keys. Zoo Miami actually partnered with USDA and an organization called ESYSMA to eradicate the sacred ibis which is wreaking havoc across Europe right now and we avoided that and all of that cost and potential. So the giant African land snail that was a huge program that was a risk to our agricultural industry. Used to eat stucco on houses I think didn't it? It'll also eat your house. Yeah I mean crazy. We should say you know we're hearing the flamingos behind us now flamingos for a long time were

thought not to be native in Florida. Right. Turns out they are. Yeah and we were Zoo Miami has led the way on that on on trying to get Florida flamingos recognized as a native species here because they've always been here. And so in a way, we got rid of a non native species by just changing their designation. We say that through I can imagine as a scientist, that's a route that you endorse though, fully know, but we corrected a historical wrong. You know, Audubon when he came down and wanted to do his famous portrait of a flamingo, he said, I go to the Florida's where they live and describe the large flocks that used to be around here.

It's kind of a forgotten history. And we helped correct that with a lot of our partners to try to get that corrected. And like all things Florida, the flamingo, even the flamingo has become political in this environment. We'll talk about that later on in this program here. So we asked folks, of course, if they have any questions about invasive species. If you do raise your hand high, so we've got some questions over here

and my colleague Katie go on and walk over to the microphone and we'll get some of those questions live. We did get some email questions. Lori in Coral Springs wrote us here, Dr. Frank, I'm conducting independent research on the potential for utilizing invasive species in South Florida as a food source. How about that? Is that a possible way to address this? Well, we've seen that with lionfish, right? So there's a whole industry that's popped up and people love lionfish. It tastes really good. I've never had one. Yeah.

They say it's kind of like hogfish. It tastes similar to that, which is price. If you can develop a market for invasive species, then you know the economy will drive demand and people will take action. Green iguanas, which are everywhere, are prized in some Central American countries. There's actually farms down there. And they charge something like $20 a pound for iguana meat. And here we have iguanas running all over the place.

If there's a market for it, Florida will find it. Aisha in Weston writes us, our neighborhood is parallel to the Everglades. We have always had iguanas around town. And most recently, a very large iguana is our unofficial security in my backyard. I've named him Fred. We are on their turf so we need to keep them safe not get rid of them. So Aisha's lived in Weston I don't know how long but iguanas haven't always been there between... Correct they are a non-native species a lot of people don't realize that and actually when I moved to South Florida about 18 years ago they were just considered kind of garden pests, you know, they would eat

your landscape. But now we realize they cause a lot more harm. They cause infrastructure harm. They can shed disease causing bacteria. They pollute our waterways. So there's a lot more to be concerned about with green iguanas and they've been recognized for the potential to cause harm in the environment. We've got a question here live at the Zoo Miami. Good afternoon, thanks for joining us here at the Zoo. What's your name? Hi, my name is Emilys. Hi Emilys, what's your question? So you had mentioned that the peacocks are invasive or non-native but that they also are protected, so why they're protected if they're non-native? Yeah, can you address that, Dr? Yeah, well I think

it's well-intended people who have petitioned local areas where they've designated areas is like bird sanctuaries, which is great, right? We want to protect birds, especially native birds. But if peacocks fall underneath that, then it creates local laws that we can't take action to to help eliminate the invasive peacocks as they're growing in population and come up with solutions to try to control their numbers. Regarding peacocks, in my community, there was a program to capture male peacocks and give them vasectomies, essentially.

There's probably a better medical term for that when it comes to the animal. But is that an effective way to try to control an invasive species? Well, I mean, you would have to get a really large number of them, you know. Males aren't as important as the females.

You only need one male that can breed with several females. So it's probably not a way to curtail them unless you can really get a large number of the population. But that doesn't stop like property destruction that they do or defecating all over areas and spreading certain diseases or contaminating areas. I'm not too proud to say I've been known to chase peacocks out of my yard.

Yeah, kindly, gently, but I have been known to get them out. Hi, how are you? Thanks for being out here today at the zoo. What's your name? Hi, my name is Giselle. Hi, Giselle. Yeah, nice to meet you. My question is, what can normal people do

about invasive species in our neighborhoods? Do we report them? Is there anything that we can like physically do? Like I submit stuff to the FWC site But I feel like nothing happens when you do that. Is there anything you can do? FWC, the Florida Wildlife Commission. Yeah, how do folks notify, take care of invasive species? That's a great question. So For animals there are priority ones that there is actually a hotline with the FDWC that they, it's called 1-8-8-I've-got-one. And so if you see a large snake constrictor like a python or a boa, if you see a large lizard species, please call that hotline. They will have people respond. Even after hours you leave a voicemail, they'll have people try to respond to it. For the non-priority ones, there's actually an app for it, right? There's an app for

everything these days. So there's the I've got one app and you can report that. And then also for invasive plants there are ways you can look online and you can look at a website that eSysma they have some guidelines and Florida Invasive Plant Council. So there's ways that you can treat them in your own yard and everyone can do that if you can treat them in your own yard. And everyone can do that. If you have invasive species in your yard, especially plants, please get rid of them, treat them properly because they get spread across

and impact other areas surrounding you. If your neighbor has that invasive plant, odds are you're probably gonna have it. Yeah, somewhat soon, if not already. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your question. Michael and Key Largo emailed us very interesting you're discussing the issue of invasive exotic species invading the territories of our

neighborhoods. My wife and I attended a biosecurity conference to look at invasive species from the perspective of Caribbean islands and Michael says Caribbean islands get their invasives as stowaways from shipments from Florida. So not only is Florida a place of importation of these species, it's also a place that we export these elsewhere? Yeah, it can be both ways. So you know we have the amazing Port of Miami, but with that comes traffic from around the world and you can have stowaways both coming in and going out from Florida. In fact we even had like a

we looked at some of the genetics of the boa constrictors in Puerto Rico, and they're very closely related to the ones in Florida. So which came first, but yeah, there definitely has been transit of invasives across the Caribbean from different sources. We're live from Zoo Miami here on this Friday, statewide on the Florida Roundup between our lovely in-person crowd.

Great to have everybody here finding some shade under a blue Miami sunshine on this Friday. And the flamingos, the flamboyance of flamingos behind us. You are listening to the Florida Ronda from your Florida Public Radio station. Dr. Frank Ridgely is with us, the director of research here at Zoo Miami. Justina in Jacksonville sent us this note, Dr. Frank. She says, I have an abundance of invasive Cuban tree frogs in my yard. Those are another invasive species. Yes, they are. And Justina says, I euthanize them humanely by applying benzocaine on their bellies before putting them in my freezer as advised by UF Wildlife's Department of Ecology and Conservation.

Yeah, as a veterinary, I would endorse that too. That is the correct thing to do. Do not put them directly in your freezer. You can buy this topical anesthetics, usually used for cold sores that you can get in any Walgreens, CBS, wear gloves, protect yourself. You just put a little dab on it and it works to effectively euthanize them. Now why would somebody like Justina want to do that as opposed to some other route? She's clearly taking the next step in preserving these. Yeah, and not everyone's comfortable with that, but these Cuban tree frogs will eat anything

that they can fit in their mouth. And especially in urban areas, they have displaced all of our native tree frogs because they'll just consume them because all our native ones are smaller. And displacement is the big threat when it comes to invasive animals here. And back to those poster animals, the poster reptiles of invasive species, the pythons and now this boa constrictor. How decimated have the rodent population, the small animal, mammal population

in the Everglades been because of these pythons? Yeah, absolutely devastating, especially in the southern Everglades. I mean, we've just seen freefall in the numbers of small mammals in those areas, and it's been measured through surveys for years. You've done surgery on pythons, live pythons, to put tracking devices inside of them. What are the results of that and is there any light of hope when it comes to addressing the python threat that

continues? Well, I mean the research we do, you know, snakes don't have necks, right? So we can't put a collar on them. So it requires surgery, and Zoo Miami has volunteered their resources to help our government partners and university partners, because we have the facilities that are set up to do that. So we put these trackers in, but it's to answer those basic questions. And we do have, you know, people ask,

well, why do you release them? It's an invasive species, right? But if we don't understand them, we can't develop good strategies to combat them. So it provides that key information for us to be able to do it. But as far as hope for the pythons, wow, we really need some kind of revolutionary idea to really, you know, get a hold of this problem. We have, it's not gonna be one thing, it's gonna be a combination of things and we're doing our best.

But the Python challenge having the public go out and capture them one by one, or it seems the size of the problem has seemingly exponentially increased over the course of so many decades. Yeah, and they're reaching all the way up into Charlotte County now. But the FWC says there's probably

between 100 to 300,000 of them out there and they can have like 40 eggs per season. And so you can do the math and figure that out if we're only removing about at the most 2,400 a year. I'll leave that to you, Dr. Frank. Frank Ridgely is the director of research. He's got some special guests for us. We're gonna take a quick break.

We've got some butterflies, a gopher tortoise, and we will meet Baby here on the Florida Roundup as you are listening to it live from Zoo Miami on your Florida Public Radio station. Stick with us. I got the news today, didn't want to hear, but I knew that it would come. Your old true friend of ours was talking on the phone, said you'd found someone. And I thought of all the bad luck, struggles we went through how I lost me and you lost you covering florida navigator program provides confidential assistance for all floridians looking to explore health care coverage options within the federal health insurance marketplace

help is available at 877-813-915 or at coveringflorida.org. It's the Florida Roundup live from Zoo Miami. Great to be with you statewide here in front of the pink flamingos at the zoo. My name is Tom Hudson. Welcome back to our live program and our special musical guest this hour, Bob Bonin. And the side effects, fellas, thank you so much for our musical accompaniment. The flamingos are certainly appreciative as are we. Dr. Frank Ridgely is still with us, head of conservation at Zoo Miami. And you've brought some friends with us. We're going to start with some butterflies

that you have. Tell us about these butterflies. Yeah. Describe them for us. So this is a very special butterfly. It's called the Attala Hairstreak butterfly and this butterfly has a tremendous conservation success story. It's still considered rare and imperiled but it has black wings with iridescent blue spots and then a bright red body and And that's a signal to predators that they're toxic. So this is a butterfly. Do you want these in your garden if they're toxic? Absolutely, they eat a toxic plant,

but they're beautiful. They kind of fly around lazy because they're not afraid of the predators, but they have a very unique story that one of the first industries in the southern part of the state was harvesting the one plant they rely on and they were thought to be extinct for decades. Okay. And then as as that plant somehow became popular in

landscaping, this butterfly was rediscovered and it made a rebound not through a conscious program but through people just preferring to put their plant in their yard. Nature found its way. Yeah and then they helped return take some out take some of these out They're safe to have on your palm or your silly even though they're toxic. I mean, they're obviously they're not trained butterflies But they're you're you're letting them loose here at the zoo. Do they correct? Do they now find their way back? Oh, here's one on the table Yeah We have planted the appropriate host plants and nectar plants here at the zoo and the forest that surround us, the Pine Rockland, it's a critically

endangered habitat, that is their home that used to be most of Miami and so this is an appropriate place to take them and we actually rescue them around Miami-Dade County and then we also partner with Montgomery Botanical Center where we rescue them from there because they also have the host plant there. Which is a botanical center here in Miami-Dade County. So what kind of range do these butterflies have in Florida? It's mostly southern Florida, they can't they also have the host p botanical center here in So what kind of range do have in florida? It's mos They can't tolerate cold

in the coastal areas. So contained, but people hav around different areas of so toxic means what exact here is holding three of tips. Yeah. So so the toxic so it has these toxic chemicals in it and the butterfly will the caterpillars will eat it and then sequester that toxin so it avoids predators and that's why they're very bold and sit out in the

open because they're not worried about anything eating it. Our engineer Carlos is bringing one back to your assistant is flying over. We'll have some folks live here. Oh wonderful so this is a thriving back to your assistant. It is flying over. We'll have some folks live here. Wonderful. So this is a thriving species now in Florida? It's still considered rare and apparel. So that's why we continue to work with it and rescue them. But it's had, you know, from the brink of extinction just a few decades ago to now it's

become pretty common. I mean, most people in the southern part of the state will recognize seeing them around in natural areas. It's a black butterfly with iridescent blue spots on its wings and kind of a copper tail. Absolutely gorgeous. Wonderful. Well, thank you for sharing the butterfly with us. I see another friend of yours who's just behind your left shoulder there. This is a gopher tortoise and these have been burrowing in in the limestone of South Florida and Florida for eons. Correct, yeah. So gopher tortoises are a threatened species in the state and

they're really threatened by development mostly. A lot of the areas are these open areas where these gopher tortoises make their burrows, but they are key to healthy ecosystems. They're what we call ecosystem engineers. They make these burrows that are home to hundreds of other species and they actually eat plants and they spread these endangered plant seeds. So we've had an active program. This guy's a little friendly here. He's going right up to the audience. Curious one. And so we actually have a program where we're reintroducing them to the forest here in Miami to bring them back because their numbers were kind of decimated. So releasing them back in the

wild? Yeah and there are programs across the state we partner with FWC and we're bringing their numbers back because we know they're so important. Terrific and how old is this fellow or lady? It's hard to tell on that you know but this one is probably close to like 15, 20 years old. Wow. And who said a turtle is slow? It is obviously quite the curious beast there. Wonderful.

Does he have a name? His name is Raphael. Raphael. Raphael the gopher tortoise. Well, Raphael will be sticking around as well. Finally, we have Baby here with us. Baby they're going to bring out. Tell us a little bit about Baby the parrot. Well Baby is almost 40 years old, a yellow-naped Amazon and came from a

private owner but has been here since around the in the 1990s and the yellow-naped Amazon is a critically endangered species in the wild though. Wonderful. Hi everybody. Hannah is the handler for Baby. Hi my name is Hannah. This is Baby. We are both super excited to be here. Baby is 38 years old and she is very well known for her mimicry skills, which she's going to be showing off for you guys today. She's going to say a nice polite hello. Hello. Hello. I think the mic is scaring her a little bit. We will pull the mic away a little. Maybe it's got plenty of vocal though. Yes. She loves to visit her friends and knows it's always polite to knock on the door. That's very nice. Now if her friends don't answer that's perfectly fine. She'll make sure to call them on the telephone.

Very nice. Now here in Zumaimi we do have a very important message. Parrots are advanced level pets. They require a lot of specialized care. They live in big flocks in the wild. They require a lot of social time from their owners. They also are very loud. Their calls can be heard from miles away in the wild. And they have a long life expectancy,

so it is often that parrots will outlive their owners, and when people receive parrots that they are not prepared to care for, unfortunately sometimes they will release them, and these birds will wreak havoc on the Florida ecosystem and compete with native birds for food or for shelter. Baby has some more animals she'd like to imitate for you guys. We'd love to hear a little more from Baby. Kitty. Do you teach baby these? I personally did not but my team of the Empatheter did. Some parrots are well better for learning vocals than others, so you can't just pick up any parrot from a pet store and expect them to learn all these vocals very well. Baby is one of our best vocalists. She likes to do the Miami

favorite, the Chiwawa. Yeah, that one's always a fan favorite. It's my favorite, too. Well, thank you guys so much for listening, and I really hope that our conservation message resonated with you guys as a thank you. Thank you for being here, Ana. I think Baby has one more message for us for Valentine's Day coming up. She does. She's going to give you all a big kiss and a whistle. And what do you want to say? I love you. Oh, she loves you. Baby, we love you too.

Thank you very much, Hannah. Appreciate it, baby. Wonderful to meet you. Great to be here, Frank. What a wonderful staff you've got here. Thank you for sharing some of these animals with us. Sure. Much appreciated.

Frank Ridgely, the Director of research and conservation here at Zoo Miami, Hana, Baby, Raphael, the tortoise, and all the butterflies that are still with us. They're still hanging around with us here at the Florida Roundup. Great to have you along with us. Well, finally on the Roundup, I'd be remiss not to mention how we are living in a divided state, right? I think we can all agree that we are living in a divided state, right? I think we can all agree that we are living in a divided state. Certainly our politics and our political interests, yes, but even as the flamingos begin to speak our avian interests. Now Florida's state bird right now is the northern mockingbird. That's been the state bird

here in the Sunshine State since 1927. Well before all the Florida man memes that we have on social media or anyone outside of our state mocked us for our sunshine states in 1927. all the florida man memes media or anyone outside o us for our driving habits mockingbird was our bird. bird. The mockingbird is bird of five states florid right? Four other states

is their state bird. So this being Florida, feathers have been ruffled over the Mockingbird stature for years. Among the hundreds of proposals of bills that Florida lawmakers will peck and scratch their way through is the one that has disturbed perhaps the nest the most about Mockingbird supporters. Because in a few weeks ju in florida, lawmakers wil for their annual law writ legislation first would n

bird. That's important. T J. That is the proposed s florida florida is in its right and like 70 degrees a friday in february, it' Florida is in its name after all right and like 70 degrees and sunshine on a Friday in February it's only found in Florida. This is not a bird that goes elsewhere. It's only Florida. Second the mockingbird well if this legislation is successful the mockingbird would have to fly the coop here in Florida. Instead the state bird would become the American flamingo. The American flamingo. Yes it

is graceful. Yes it is gangly. The flamingo after all American flamingo. Yes, it is graceful. Yes, it is gangly. The flamingo, after all, is just part of the official logo of the Florida lottery, after all. The state already endorses the flamingo with the Florida lottery, and there's a 21-foot tall statue of a flamingo named Phoebe who greets visitors at Tampa International Airport.

Clearly, the flamboyance of flamingos behind us are lobbying hard to become the state bird. After decades of thinking that flamingos were like so many of us, not native to the state, it turns out, as we learned from Frank, that flamingos are more Floridian than just about each and every one of us. So thank you to the flamingos,

thank you, Frank, to you and your staff, thank you to the entire staff here at Zoo Miami for hosting us here on the floor around it. It's been a great afternoon. We appreciate folks finding the shade and enjoying us. Our program is produced each and every week by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa. By Bridget O'Brien, Grace and Dr. and additional help today from Katie Munoz. Katie, thank you for your help here live at the Zoo. WLRN's Vice President of radio and the technical director back in the station is Peter Maris. Peter, thanks for keeping everything running on time for

us. And engineering help from Doug Peterson, Carlos Rosendo, Ernesto J. and Jackson Harp. Without those four guys and the help at the zoo, we could not have done our program today. We had live music this hour from Bob Bonnen and the SideFX. Thanks fellas for all of the tune-age. Our special thanks to Zoo Miami for hosting us and a big thank you to Suli Vanderbees and our events and community coordinator here at WLN. Our next in-person program one month from today, March 7th, we will be live in person in Gainesville at WUFT, our partner station in Gainesville. Thanks to them, we're looking forward to that. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, supporting public media.

Covering Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for all Floridians looking to explore health care coverage options within the federal health insurance marketplace. Help is available at 877-813-915 or at coveringflorida.org.