Gumbo Limbo and Turtles

I went to the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex in Boca Raton, FL. It's located in Red Reef Park on the barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. The main purpose of the complex is to protect a stand of forest known as the tropical hammock. The small park includes coastal dunes, sable palm hammock and mangrove wetlands. There are also a lot of the park's name sake, the Gumbo Limbo tree (picture left).

There's a nice boardwalk through the hammock and along the Intracoastal. There are a lot of different trees in the hammock, though some of it was damaged by Hurricane Wilma in October 2005. The damage has allowed some different plant species to emerge. For example there are a lot of papaya trees growing which haven't been seen in the area for some 60 years. A 40' tower provides a nice view from above the canopy. There's supposed to be a family of gray foxes living under the boardwalk, but I didn't see them.

There's a research center at the complex including 4 outdoor aquariums. One of the aquariums contained small nurse and lemon sharks. They are being used for perception research by the Florida Atlantic University. Another tank contains various reef fish and crustaceans. The final two tanks contain fish and turtles. One tank has a Kemp's Ridleys Turtle and the other contains 3 Loggerhead Turtles (left). There are also some tortoise there. The staff leads turtle walks during the nesting season to see egg laying and later hatching. Unfortunately I was there a couple weeks before the first walks start. There are apparently some Leatherback Turtles laying eggs along the SE Florida coast, but they are very protected and the nests are not publicized.

It's a nice complex preserving a small glimpse of the natural Florida coast. There are more pictures in the Gumbo Limbo section of my Gallery.