Ten years ago, in a desperate move to save one of Florida's most
endangered species, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials approved
capturing a few of the animals and taking them to Tampa's Lowry
Park Zoo for captive breeding. The endangered species in
question was not the Florida panther, the manatee or any of the
other license-plate icons that call the Sunshine State home. It
was the Key Largo wood rat, a small rodent with cinnamon fur and
bulging black eyes. Federal officials figured they could save
the species from extinction by spending $12,000 a year breeding
the rats and then turning them loose again in the wild. At first
the breeding program seemed to be a big success. At Lowry Park
and, later, Disney's Animal Kingdom, the endangered rats bred
like, well, rats. But then the project ran into big problems,
demonstrating why captive breeding is a tricky strategy that's
used only as a last resort, said Larry Williams, South Florida
field supervisor for the Fish and Wildlife Service. The rat
project ended this