Wildlife Spotlight: Snail Kite
Endangered Snail Kite
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The snail kite, also called the Everglades kite, feeds almost exclusively
on freshwater apple snails, extracting them from their shells with its
slender, curved bill. Common in many parts of South and Central America,
Mexico, and Cuba and once ranging throughout Florida, today the snail
kite is limited to freshwater marshes of central and south Florida and
is listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. By the
1960s decades of drainage of their marsh habitat had reduced the Florida
population to no more than 25 individuals. The snail kite population
has rebounded and in the 1990s numbered 700 or more individuals. The
snail kite is a good indicator of water quality. Increased nutrients,
especially phosphorus from agricultural runoff, result in growth of
dense stands of cattails and water hyacinth. Snail kites require relatively
open water to see the apple snails and are unable to forage successfully
in dense vegetation. Increased nutrients may also have detrimental effects
on the apple snails themselves by decreasing oxygen levels in the water.
