The Crandon Park Visitors' and Nature Center is located on Key Biscayne, a sedimentary barrier island with the Atlantic Ocean on the east side and Biscayne Bay to the west. Here you can explore the various ecosystems of the Key including the dunes, mangroves, coastal hammock and seagrass bed community. The island is filled with rare and beautiful plants like the beach peanut, Biscayne prickly ash and the coontie. There are herons, ospreys and many brilliantly colored butterflies. The beautiful sandy beach is also an important nesting ground for sea turtles. The seagrass beds provide a home for mangrove snapper, parrot fish, crabs, shrimp, sea stars and puffer fish. Once, the Tequesta Indians inhabited an unspoiled Key. Today the Bear Cut Preserve is a window back to the wilderness that once was south Florida. |
