Hundreds of non-native animal & plant species live in Florida. They prey on native critters & damage native ecosystems.

After 10,000 years, they're now gone. Nearly all of Florida’s critically endangered Acropora coral colonies are now dead, after a record-breaking ocean heat wave in 2023. This marks the species’ ...

Initially established in Everglades National Park in the early 1980s, Burmese pythons quickly put a stranglehold on Florida's wildlife, contributing to the decline of small mammals, including raccoons ...

Healthy corals, like this one in Puerto Rico, have color. Bleached corals appear white. By Seán Kinane/WMNF News (2015). In early June 2023, the coral reefs in the lower Florida Keys and the Dry ...

Abnormally hot surface water temperatures have created conditions ripe for an unprecedented coral bleaching event. This side-by-side shows the same elkhorn coral in August 2022 before bleaching and in ...

A 2023 marine heat wave laid waste to elkhorn and staghorn coral, which have thrived for centuries off Florida’s coast. Elkhorn and staghorn coral have dominated the Caribbean’s coral reef systems for ...

"Known as 'Georgia's Little Amazon,' the Altamaha River winds 137 miles from central Georgia and out to the Atlantic Ocean. It's the largest free-flowing river on the east coast and Georgia’s largest ...

In early June 2023, the coral reefs in the lower Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas were stunning. We were in diving gear, checking up on hundreds of corals we had transplanted as part of our ...

After a searing ocean heat wave in 2023, two of the most historically important coral species in Florida are functionally extinct from the state’s reef, scientists have found. Elkhorn and staghorn ...

In early June 2023, the coral reefs in the lower Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas were stunning. We were in diving gear, checking up on hundreds of corals we had transplanted as part of our ...

A customer was at a Pollo Tropical drive-thru when the snake incident took place Latoya Gayle joined PEOPLE as an Associate Editor in 2024. Her work has previously appeared in The U.S. Sun, National ...