By Andrea Stetson

It takes only a few hundred steps to go from a gator slough to an African Island. A few more steps and children can strut among the peacocks or bop up and down with the prairie dogs.

It’s all inside the new-and-improved Nature Park beside the Shell Factory in North Fort Myers.

Gone are the cages from the old Octagon business that used to occupy the space. New are the wide paths and open spaces meandering around trees and animals.

Guests are greeted by about a dozen prairie dogs that pop up and down from their holes in the sand. A few feet away, gentle spray from a giant waterfall refreshes passersby when the wind is just right. Get a bit closer to the falls and you’ll see a turtle pond.

The Nature Park is also home to ring-tailed lemurs, raccoons, a bobcat, an African serval, boar, coati-mundi, kinkajous, striped skunks, deer and armadillos. Read the rest of this entry »