Featured Species

Welaka National Fish Hatchery is not your ordinary fish hatchery.  On top of fish, we also raise Eastern Indigo Snakes, Florida Grasshopper Sparrows.

A jet black snake with reddish orange coloring around it's face on sandy soil

Average adult size is 60-74 inches (152-188 cm), record is 103.5 inches (262.8 cm). Adults are large and thick bodied. The body is glossy black and in sunlight has iridescent blue highlights. The chin and throat is reddish or white, and the color may extend down the body. The belly is cloudy...

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A small bird with black and brown wings and light-colored breast and beak held by a hand

Florida grasshopper sparrows are small, short-tailed birds, about 13 centimeters (5 inches) long. Dorsally, they are much darker than the eastern race of the species (A. s. pratensis). They are mostly black and gray and lightly streaked with brown on the nape and upper back. Ventrally, adults...

FWS Focus