Video
Everglades - Adapt to Survive
Descriptive Transcript
Description Narrator: National Park Service logo.
Everglades: Adapt to Survive.
Ranger Denise, Everglades Education Ranger, stands next to the Loop Road Education Center sign.
Ranger Denise: Hi, my name is Ranger Denise here at Everglades National Park. Today we're going to be joining our Everglades Education Team at Loop Road to learn a little bit more about adaptations and why they're important to all of us at home.
Description Narrator: What is an “Adaptation”?
Adaptation: A change by which a plant or animal can survive better in its environment.
Ranger Denise: So, let's think of some examples of an adaptation. Think of think of how a bear hibernates in the winter to stay warm. That would be what we call a behavioral adaptation, something it changed in its behavior to survive better.
Description Narrator: A teddy bear sleeps in a sleeping bag in a tent.
Ranger Denise: There's also a penguin.
Description Narrator: A penguin stands shaded by an umbrella while a person sprays the penguin with water. Note: Penguins are not native to Florida.
Ranger Denise: A penguin has waterproof feathers that will help it stay warm and dry in those frigid Arctic temperatures. That is what we would call a structural adaptation, something in its body that's built in that helps it survive better.
Description Narrator: Periphyton under water.
Ranger Yeva, Everglades Education Ranger.
Ranger Yeva: Hi, I'm Ranger Yeva. We are out in the Sawgrass Prairie, and often the sawgrass gets all the attention.
Description Narrator: Sawgrass equals awesome.
Ranger Yeva: But today we're going to focus on something a little bit smaller. One of my favorite things here in the park, we are going to learn about Periphyton, or as us park rangers like to call it, Everglades Gold.
It may look a little ucky and yucky, but when you look a little closer and you take a smell…
Description Narrator: Ranger Yeva holds a pile of periphyton in her hands, and sniffs, while wearing plastic glasses with a big nose attached.
Ranger Yeva: Ahh…You can discover how awesome periphyton really is. It has some pretty cool adaptations that help it to survive here in the Everglades and benefit other plants and animals.
Description Narrator: Three rangers stand behind Ranger Yeva and dance to each listed part of a habitat.
Ranger Yeva: It provides a habitat…
Description Narrator: Adaptation: Provides habitat.
Ranger Yeva: …complete with food, water, shelter, and space that allows many plants and animals to survive here in the Sawgrass Prairie. So, let's explore some of the adaptations of periphyton. One important point is that it acts like a sponge, when you give it a squeeze, you can see that the water that comes out of the periphyton is actually very clear. This is because the periphyton acts like a filter to clean the water.
Description Narrator: Adaptation: Filters and holds water.
Ranger Yeva: This is the water that you drink at home.
So, what kind of animals do you think live in periphyton? Do you think we'll find a shark?
Description Narrator: A person in a shark costume appears and is visibly frustrated.
Ranger Yeva: No, too small for our shark, not enough space, or shelter.
Description Narrator: The shark rolls around in the grass.
Ranger Yeva: But we do find much tinier creatures like aquatic insects, invertebrates, and snails, because periphyton is the perfect home for them.
Description Narrator: A dragonfly, crawfish, and snail.
Ranger Yeva: What do these creatures eat? If you guessed periphyton, then you’re right. But periphyton is also a living thing that also needs to have its own food. So, what does it eat? Well, periphyton has an adaptation.
Description Narrator: Adaptation: Photosynthesis.
Ranger Yeva: It photosynthesizes or gets its energy and food from the sun.
So, if the periphyton were to be eaten by a beetle, who’d be eaten by a fish, who’s eaten by a woodstork, who’s eaten by an alligator…
Description Narrator: Each animal is acted out by a ranger holding a prop or in costume. The Woodstork is eaten by the alligator.
Please stand by screen pops up.
Ranger Yeva: The periphyton is the base of our Everglades food chain, it has many important adaptations for many different plants and animals to survive here in the Everglades. I guess our nickname Everglades Gold really is right, after all. Thanks for joining me learning about the many adaptations of periphyton. What are three interesting facts that you learned about it?
Description Narrator: What are 3 periphyton adaptations you learned?
A photo of a colony of Woodstorks.
Ranger Dan, Everglades Education Ranger.
Ranger Dan stands in front of water with trees and vegetation in the background.
Ranger Dan: Hey, guys. My name is Ranger Dan with Everglades National Park. In the Everglades, we have a lot of very important residents down here. One big example are the wading birds we have.
Scientists in the Everglades look to the wading birds to see the health of the park. If they see a lot of wading birds, a lot of colonies, they’ll know this area is very healthy. A big example of our wading birds are the woodstorks we have. Woodstorks live here year-round. Actually, I think I hear one of them now.
Description Narrator: A person in a Woodstork costume.
Pinky, Everglades Resident Woodstork.
Pinky: Hey, Ranger Dan, did you bring us some visitors today?
Ranger Dan: Hey, Pinky. We have some junior rangers here to learn about the Everglades.
Pinky: Oh, that is wonderful! We're so happy to have you, welcome!
Ranger Dan: Our first question for you is where do you live in the Everglades?
Pinky: Well, I live here with my husband in the tree hammocks and in the Shark River Slough. It's where our parents showed us to live as chicks.
Ranger Dan: That's awesome. Can you show us one of these tree hammocks?
Pinky: Absolutely, let's go!
Description Narrator: Pinky and Ranger Dan enter a tree hammock habitat.
Ranger Dan: What do you look for in tree hammocks?
Pinky: Well, I look that they're high and dry, off the ground away from the predators.
Description Narrator: An alligator in the water.
Pinky: But so, we're still close enough to water because, well, it's just such a beautiful neighborhood, and this is where we want to raise our chicks.
Description Narrator: A woodstork chick in a nest.
Ranger Dan: Oh yeah, family is a very, very important thing. How many chicks do you have?
Pinky: We have three that just hatched last week.
Ranger Dan: Oh, wow, that's excellent. So, what kinds of things are you teaching them?
Pinky: Well, come on, I'll show you.
So what we teach our young ones is we fly on the warm air currents here.
Description Narrator: Pinky stands over a narrow strip of water.
Pinky: We soar above the ground, like our cousins, the vultures.
Description Narrator: A photo of a black vulture.
Pinky: And then when we find some nice water that we want to find some yummy treats in, we dig with our pink, beautiful feet…
Description Narrator: Adaptation equals Pink feet!
Pinky: And we use our powerful bill to search in the water for something yummy to eat.
Description Narrator: Fun fact: Woodstorks can close their beak faster than you can blink your eyes.
Pinky: And then we…
Pinky pauses, demonstrating how wading birds will wait for a fish to appear.
Pinky: Snap it up and enjoy a nice treat.
Description Narrator: Adaptation equals fast beak close!
Ranger Dan: Wow, that looks like a really cool way to fish. I like the fish too, but when I fish, I like to put a pink worm on my fishing pole. That way I can track the fish that way.
Pinky: Oh, that's funny that you mention that Ranger Dan, because I have my own little pink worms. In fact, when we all dance in the slough, when we dance around and do our Woodstork dance, these beautiful pink toes that we have actually help us by attracting the fish because they look like that pink worm on the end of your hook. You see, we're not so different, after all.
Ranger Dan: Wow, we really are similar. We both like to find a good place to live, and we like to fish for our food. Pinky, where are you going for the wet season?
Pinky: Well, it does get a little bit hot out here in that wet season, so we actually fly down to Argentina. We migrate down there, and that's where my parents raised me.
Description Narrator: Behavioral Adaptation equals Migration.
Ranger Dan: That sounds great. I might just join you.
Description Narrator: What are 3 Woodstork adaptations you learned?
Cypress Domes and Trees.
Ranger Tricia, Everglades Education Ranger.
Ranger Tricia: Hi, my name is Ranger Tricia, and we're going to be learning about the adaptations of Cypress Domes. If you look out to the horizon, you’ll notice that they look like hills.
Description Narrator: Hills? Not hills!
A Cypress dome looks like a mound of trees from the distance.
Ranger Tricia: Except if we were to explore one, we would actually be going down in elevation.
Cypress domes are a response to the depression within the bedrock of the limestone. This makes for an awesome habitat for our cypress trees. As you'll notice that the taller ones aren't necessarily due to age, but rather the amount of water and nutrients they receive.
As you can see, we're currently in the dry season. But based on the water marks of the trees, you can see how high the water gets during the wet season.
Description Narrator: Ranger Tricia is crouched next to the bottom of a cypress tree. The water mark is about 3 feet up the tree. Above the water mark, the tree trunk is white.
Ranger Tricia: If you notice the bottom of the trees, they kind of broadened out. This is a really good adaptation for stability, especially during hurricanes.
Description Narrator: Structural adaptation equals wide base.
Ranger Tricia: Ranger Yeva is going to demonstrate how trees react to the wind. So, she's a normal tree.
Description Narrator: Ranger Yeva stands with her feet together. Ranger Tricia gives her a light push and Yeva loses her balance. Tree fail!
Ranger Tricia: All right, now, we're going to widen our stance to better stabilize ourselves during wind.
Description Narrator: Ranger Yeva stands with her feet apart. Ranger Tricia gives her a light push and Yeva remains standing.
Ranger Tricia: All right, she didn't go anywhere.
Description Narrator: Tree win!
Ranger Tricia: So, if we look back at our cypress trees and notice the wide parts of the bottom, now we can associate that with Ranger Yeva being able to secure herself and stabilize during these high winds.
Description Narrator: Structural adaptation equals wide base.
Ranger Tricia: So that's the adaptation of these Cypress Trees.
One of the coolest adaptations of our cypress trees is that they know when daylight savings is! Well, sort of. While our cypress trees love water, they don't always get it, especially during the dry season. So, one of their adaptations is that they have to lose their needles and they basically go into hibernation.
Description Narrator: Adaptation equals Lose needles to conserve water.
Ranger Tricia: So they wait until the wet season, and as you can see, we already have brand new needles growing.
For added stability, we have some of the root systems that are protruding out of the soil.
Description Narrator: Adaptation equals Stability through knees.
Ranger Tricia: We call these knees.
Thank you for joining me on this adventure through the Cypress Dome. What were your three interesting facts that you learned?
Description Narrator: What are 3 cypress tree adaptations you learned?
Crocodiles and Alligators.
Ranger Miranda, Everglades Education Ranger.
Ranger Miranda: Hi, I'm Ranger Miranda, and today we're going to learn about adaptations of crocodiles and alligators. Here in South Florida, it's the only place in the world where we can find both American alligators and American crocodiles in the same place. We are in the northern part of the American crocodiles range, while in the southern part of the American alligators range. Let's take a look at some of the differences.
Description Narrator: Gator Hat Man, “Catching” Gators on Camera for Years.
Gator Hat Man: Howdy, Ranger! I'm looking for some gators and crocodiles.
Ranger Miranda: Gators and crocodiles? You came to the right place! Here in Everglades National Park, we have both. However, you're going to find them in different parts of the park.
Crocodiles have a special adaptation, a salt secreting gland, that allows them to be able to survive and thrive on the saltwater coast.
However, alligators do not have this adaptation, so they are going to hang out in the freshwater environments like the Shark River Slough, where we are now. So, alligators either have to move to a freshwater environment or die.
Description Narrator: A toy alligator is flipped over on its back.
Ranger Miranda: That's a very nice hat you have there.
Gator Hat Man: Thanks. That's my lucky gator catching hat.
Description Narrator: Gator Man wears a hooded-camouflage outfit with a stuffed crocodile on his head.
Ranger Miranda: Gator catching hat? Did you know that it actually looks a little more like a crocodile?
Gator Hat Man: What!?
Ranger Miranda: Crocodiles are a greenish-gray color, and they have teeth from both rows showing. We call it a toothy grin. While alligators are almost a black color, and they have just teeth from their top row showing. Do you feel a little more like you have knowledge to get out there and look for gators and crocs?
Gator Hat Man: Yeah, I do.
Ranger Miranda: Awesome!
Description Narrator: See ‘ya later, Gator Man!
Gator Man runs off down the road.
Ranger Miranda: Both crocodiles and alligators are ectothermic, meaning they get their heat from outside sources. To get that heat, they can bask in the sun, they can go to warmer or cooler water. When they bask in that sun, they have built-in mini solar panels, right on their backs. These are called scutes.
Description Narrator: Ranger Miranda holds two scutes in her hands; two flat, circular bones with lots of holes.
Ranger Miranda: These bony ridges have plenty of holes in them to let the warm blood out, and the cold blood in. These boney ridges help increase the surface area of the alligators’ and crocodiles’ back. This helps them soak up more sun.
Thank you for joining me and learning about adaptations of crocodiles and alligators. What are three interesting facts that you learned about these adaptations of crocodiles and alligators?
Description Narrator: What are 3 crocodile and alligator adaptations you learned?
Ranger Denise: Thank you for joining our Everglades Education Team today on our marvelous adventure to learn about so many wonderful adaptations.
To recap, we learned all about the periphyton and saw it up close to Ranger Yeva. We also met Pinky the woodstork with Ranger Dan. We saw and experienced the Cypress Dome with Ranger Tricia. And we also learned a little bit more about how to tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile with Ranger Miranda.
What are your three favorite things that you learned today that are adaptations in Everglades National Park?
Description Narrator: Let’s name some adaptations we can find in Everglades National Park!
National Park Service logo.
Credits:
Rangers: Denise Diaz, Yeva Cifor, Dan Kerber, Tricia Morgan, Miranda Hernandez.
Funding generously provided by: South Florida National Parks Trust and National Park Foundation.
Photo credits:
NPS Photos: Woodstork Chicks – Kat Vitulana; Pink Worm – Squeezyboy; Cypress Dome – Glenn Gardner; Solar Panels – Department of Army Corps of Engineers.
Produced by: Loop Road Education Team 2020 at Everglades National Park.
Description
Learn about the amazing adaptations that plants and animals have in Everglades National Park.
Duration
12 minutes, 48 seconds
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