Successful nesting season for American crocodile hatchlings at Turkey Point Power Plant
MIAMI - American crocodile hatching season has come to an end at Florida Power and Light's Turkey Point Clean Energy Center south of Miami.
FPL biologists say it was a successful season at the site resulting in nearly five hundred crocodile hatchlings from twenty-five nests.
FPL officials say the Turkey Point Clean Energy Center's cooling canal system provides an optimal habitat for the crocs and its management program is a significant contributor to the growing population of the species.
The American crocodile management program, in place for 45 years, monitors nests, relocates hatchlings, and helps create an appropriate habitat which has resulted in an increase in the crocodile population.
These conservation efforts have been credited for helping the species rebound from an endangered species to a threatened species in 2007.
The success of FPL's crocodile program has been recognized with numerous awards and was featured this year on the award-winning Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
Turkey Point and the surrounding areas are one of only three major habitats for the American Crocodile in the U.S. The other two are Everglades National Park and Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Key Largo.