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Published: January 14th 2012
Aligators
A beach of Florida's most famous reptile at Homosassa SpringsToday, I awoke in Tampa, the city on the other side of Tampa Bay.
Tampa is the ying to St. Petersburg’s yang.
While St. Petersburg promotes art, tourism, and sunshine, Tampa is a working port where people work hard and then have fun afterward.
For the flavor of popular culture, consider that Tampa has so many strip clubs the
local paper puts out a guide (WARNING: Link Not Safe For Work) whenever a major sports event comes to town, and
Hooters (WARNING: Link may be offensive) was started in nearby Clearwater.
Tampa Museum of Art
Tampa is more than hot pants, a theme park, and office towers, however.
It has a downtown park with some excellent museums.
Most of it was built in the last ten years, but given them credit for the effort.
The highlight for me is the
Tampa Museum of Art.
It’s housed in a striking building covered in metal with thousands of holes in it.
The outside looks like a huge metal sponge.
The motif is continued inside with raised bumps on practically every surface, including the tables in the café.
The museum itself is a strange hybrid of
Tampa Art Museum
Close view of the Tampa Art Museum. I shot this near the entrance. From a distance, the holes blur together in a photo. artworks.
It has two main strengths,
contemporary art and
European antiquities.
Seeing them together like this weirded me out.
I’ve never seen ancient art in such modern surroundings.
The modern art is arranged thematically.
Like most displays done in this style, some worked better than others.
The museum had a major show on
Edgar Degas that they organized.
The thesis of the show is that Degas actually used classical techniques instead of purely Impressionist ones.
What makes him a modern artist is that he applied these classical techniques to modern subjects instead of the heroic myths that were considered acceptable in academic art.
To illustrate the point, the museum juxtaposed objects from its antiquities collection with Degas paintings and sculptures that were done in a similar manner.
There were many sculptures of dancers, including one of the famous
Little Dancer statues (which the museum had to borrow from the VMFA, see
The Fountain of Creativity).
I’m not entirely convinced, but it was a good show regardless.
Homosassa Springs
After the Tampa I saw the real highlight of the day, Florida wildlife.
Homosassa Springs began life as a private animal attraction.
Tourists would pay to
Key Deer
Key Deer at Homosassa Springs State Park. They are the second-most endangered animal in Florida. wander through what amounted to an outdoor zoo.
Eventually, the attraction went bankrupt and the state took it over.
They converted the land to an animal hospital.
When native animals are injured in the wild (which happens with depressing frequency) they are brought to the park to rehabilitate.
Some never fully recover, and become permanent residents.
The park now has examples of almost every native animal in Florida.
The highlights included:
Alligators: This reptile is found all over Florida, and the park has a whole group of them. They were all sleeping on the side of their pool when I got there.
Panthers: The Florida Panther is the most critically endangered animal in the state, mostly due to habitat loss.
The park has one, which was sleeping against a fence.
All of the trees in the pen are covered with plastic panels so the panther can’t climb them and escape.
Key Deer: This relative of white-tailed deer is the second-most endangered animal in Florida.
It is currently found in only five islands in the Florida
Bald Eagles
Bald Eagles at Homosassa Springs State Park. These eagles are too injured to fly. Keys.
Many of them die in auto accidents.
The park has three.
Key deer are smaller than normal deer and have black tails.
Crocodiles: I’d never know it since alligators get all the publicity, but the Everglades has crocodiles as well as alligators.
The park ranges are about the only people who can tell them apart.
Lulu the Hippo: He is the only non-native animal in the park.
He was a resident of the previous zoo.
When the state started sending the other animals to other zoos, thousands of area residents petitioned to keep Lulu.
They were very fond of him.
The state relented, and Lulu still lives at the park.
Bald Eagles: Our national symbol lives in Florida, although it’s rarely seen.
The park has three.
These eagles are injured enough that they can’t fly.
The positive for visitors is that they don’t need to be fully caged, and one can see them up close.
They are an impressive sight.
I’ve seen them in flight, but never like this.
I never realized just how big they
Lulu the Hippo
Lulu the Hippo, the only non-native animal at Homosassa Springs State Park can get.
Flamingos: It wouldn’t be Florida without some flamingos.
The park has an entire flock.
They are not caged, and just live in a stream.
They really do stand around all day on one leg, although they also walk periodically.
Their color comes from the food they eat, so these flamingos were more red than pink.
Manatees: They are the true
stars of Homosassa Springs.
They are air breathing sea creatures which are distantly related to elephants.
Manatees are big and round and very easy to anthropomorphize, so people love them more than any other Florida animal except dolphins.
The springs is the premier site for manatee rehabilitation.
Unfortunately this is needed often because they collide with boats whose drivers do not see them.
The easiest place by far to see them in the park is the pool where the food is placed.
I saw four of them there, contentedly munching away.
Unfortunately, the plants floating in the water makes it difficult to get a good picture.
The springs is a very pretty place, and well worth
West Indian Manatee
West Indian Manatee at Homosassa Springs State Park. The food floating in the water makes a good photo difficult. a visit.
Each animal pen has a large sign explaining what it is, it’s habits, where it is normally found, and how endangered it is.
The rangers are also very knowledgeable and good at explaining things.
I enjoyed this park much more than Busch Gardens from a wildlife perspective.
The smaller scale certainly helps.
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