Calusa Nature Center

During the summer, I worked as a camp counselor for the Calusa Nature Center. I've also done my community service hours at Calusa that are required for Colloquium. Calusa is a non-profit education center that is located in Fort Myers. Calusa is located on 105 acres of wilderness and swamplands. It includes a museum, a Planetarium, nature trails, a butterfly aviary and a bird aviary. I'd never really known that much about the environment or about nature before I began working at Calusa. We learned about all the different mammals like the bobcat, raccoons, opossums, pigs and the foxes. The bird aviary was filled with owls, eagles, hawks and vultures. 

In the actual museum, there are reptiles and amphibians. There are three different nature trails at Calusa. One of the trails is a raised boardwalk that takes you along some of the wetlands. My favorite part was learning each animal's individual story. For almost all of the birds and mammals, Calusa only takes in injured animals. There was a one eyed owl, a raccoon that had been raised as a domestic animal, and a bobcat that was malnutritioned. We learned a lot about the environment, recycling, and the animals.