Spooky, not Scary: Real Life Creepy Critters of Chipco Preserve
By Maeve Kiley
Haunted Habitat
Nature gets a bad rap. Or at least, certain parts of the environment do. Anything with many legs, many eyes, lots of teeth, or generally, not classified as “aesthetically appealing” are shunned and ridiculed. Generations of storytellers have voiced humanity’s discomfort with certain species through timeless caricatures of the big bad wolf, the cunning spider, the bloodsucking bat, or the skin-crawling mushrooms. Many of these superstitions were born out of genuine fear such as wolves hunting livestock or spiders carrying deadly bites. However, morality should never be assigned to a living being’s entire existence simply due to circumstances beyond the creature’s control. It’s not insidious, just instinct.
Chipco Preserve has been home to many creepy crawlies. From nocturnal creatures of the night to skilled weavers, our nature preserve welcomes all beings, regardless of physical characteristics. Halloween is celebrated as a time to embrace the strange, macabre sides of existence, so let's celebrate the spooky species living on Chipco Preserve!
The Bat House
Bruce Wayne is not the only man with a bat cave. Nestled amongst the trees and far above the ground, our bat house stands tall and proud. Pasco County houses 13 resident bat species, with the most abundant being the Brazilian Free-Tailed Bat. Migratory critters seasonally fly in, such as the Seminole Bat (typically seen roosting in overgrown Spanish Moss) and the Northern Yellow Bat (often flying through residential neighborhoods.)
Our Bat House was constructed to help replace the declining natural habitats loss due to development. Bat Houses provide a safe area for “maternity colonies” where female bats will gather to give birth and raise the babies in communal care. Bat Houses have the added benefit of providing natural pest control since a single bat consumes 50 to 100% of its natural body in mosquitoes per night. In only an hour of hunting, bats eat around an average of 500 to 1,000 mosquitos. Truly, these pint-sized phantoms of the night are wondrous creatures!
Itsby-Bitsy Orbweaver
Chipco Preserve saves hundreds yearly on store-bought cobwebs, since our resident spiders create them for us! Our home state of Florida is home to roughly 900 native spider species, with the vast majority being harmless and helpful. Similar to bats, spiders provide natural pest control, consuming 5 to 10 insects a day via their homemade webs. Orbweavers are Florida’s most famous species, housing the famous Golden silk orb-weaver (also known as the Banana Spider) and the Spiny-baked Orbweaver. These aranids are notable for their brightly-colored backs
and intricate designs. They are architectural gifted beings, spinning webs up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) in diameter! Their web is remarkably tough and sometimes stronger than steel wire of the same thickness.
Even though these creatures are powerful, they are quite bashful. Orbweavers display a “drop and hide” strategy with humans. When spotted, they will immediately hit the ground and scuttle to safety. This is partially due to their poor eyesight (ironic given their eight, beady eyes.) Orbweavers must know what they are doing since their species dates back roughly 140 million years to the Late Cretaceous Period. Dracula seems young by comparison!
Owls Galore!
There is no avian more steeped in folklore than owls. From Ancient Athenians to Aztec warriors, owls have been seen as guardians, guides, warriors, and omens of death. Their large, unblinking eyes and spinning heads seem to place watchers under a spell along with their unique, silent flight pattern.
However, owls are quite different from their folk tale and literary counterparts. Contrary to popular belief, owl brains are much more specialized towards flight and night hunting than complex puzzle-solving. An owl’s massive, tube-shaped eyes take up a lot of real-estate in their skulls, leaving not much room beyond necessary sensory
hardware. Due to this, they rely heavily on instinct and evolutionary-developed traits. Interestingly, crows and ravens are documented displaying higher logical and problem-solving skills than owls, yet they are typically categorized as “dirty scavengers.”
Chipco Preserve is blessed with an annual visit from a generational family of owls. Every year, they nest in our trees and raise their chicks off the fruit of our land. For us, they are not omens of death, but rather, a sign of a new year and new beginnings.
Funky Fungi
Ever since word spread about cordyceps, fungi have been suspect. Carefully watched in case of zombie outbreak, fiction seems to have spread some fungi falsehoods.
The “zombie fungi” is scientifically named Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (often nicknamed “Zombie-ant fungus”), and is a specialized parasitic fungus that infects carpenter ants. Spores sit on the forest floor, attach themselves to passing ants and pierce their exoskeleton.
Slowly growing inside their body, the fungi seizes control of the ant via a network built around their muscle fibers. The fungi compels the ant to leave the nest, climb a plant, and lock its jaw onto a leaf in high-humidity. After the ant dies, the fruiting body sprouts from the ant’s head and releases spores to the forest ground, thus continuing the cycle. In mimicry of an episode of The Walking Dead, Zombie-ant fungus have taken over entire ant colonies in mere weeks.
Thankfully, the fungi is tailored to carpenter ants and shows no scientific signs of ever advancing to other species. A human body is too hot for the parasite to survive, so humans will have to focus on the threat of climate change rather than a zombie invasion.
Fungi are not all parasites and zombie ants. There are around 144,000 to 155,000 formally described species of fungi, with that number expected to grow as science becomes more advanced. There are four major groups of fungi: Ascomycestes (Sac Fungi), Basidiomycetes (Club Fungi), Glomeromycetes (plant root fungi), and Chytrids (mostly aquatic fungi.) They are broadly split into molds, yeats, and macrofungi. If you have ever baked sourdough bread, congratulations! You have worked with a type of fungi!
Chipco Preserve houses many types of fungi, with many of them being exceptionally photogenic. Check out our Instagram and Facebook pages to see photos of our Fungi Friends!
Not All that Creepy Critters
Ghost stories are fun, and horror movies give a good fright, but do not allow media interpretations to influence your understanding of the natural world. Not every creature will be as cute as a puppy or as sweet as a baby cow, but they all play important parts maintaining delicate ecosystems. Spiders and bats serve as pest control, owls prevent overpopulation, and fungi balance soil and promote new growth. Even the infected Carpenter Ant is dependent upon the Zombie-ant fungi to maintain ecological balance and preserve biodiversity.
After all, every good ghost story has a good twist. The creepy critters are narrative red-herrings to the real dangers to the natural world: plastic, pollution, and deforestation.
As darkness settles over Chipco Preserve, shadows stir beneath the trees. Something flutters across the moon. Eight slender legs creep along a silken web. An owl calls from deep in the woods, while pale mushrooms rise from a rotting log like tiny ghosts of the forest floor.
But beware! Not everything lurking in the darkness is as frightening as it seems.
Bats devour insects. Spiders trap pests. Owls hunt rodents. Even ghostly mushrooms transform decay into new life. Each plays a vital role in keeping nature's delicate balance.
The real horror story isn't what lives in the shadows. It's what happens when those creatures disappear.
This Halloween, spare a spider's web, leave fallen leaves undisturbed, and protect the trees that shelter nocturnal wildlife. The next time something rustles in the darkness, look closer. That creature you fear may be one of nature's greatest protectors.
At Chipco Preserve, the things that go bump in the night belong here, too.
Help Keep the Wild Things Wild
The greatest threat to these creatures isn't a full moon or a haunted forest. It's the disappearance of their habitat. Your donation helps Chipco Preserve protect wildlife habitats, promote conservation, and inspire appreciation for nature's most misunderstood inhabitants.
This Halloween, don't just save your screams. Help save their habitat.
Donate to Chipco Preserve today and give nature's misunderstood creatures something worth celebrating: a future.
Every gift, large or small, helps us continue our conservation work.
Works Cited:
About Owls I Owl Research Institute. owlresearchinstitute. (n.d.). https://www.owlresearchinstitute.org/owls-1
Florida bat species. FLBWG. (n.d.). https://www.flbwg.net/florida-bat-species.html
How a parasitic fungus turns ants into “zombies.” Animals. (n.d.). https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/cordyceps-zombie-fungus-takes-over-ants
JeremyHussell. (2025, September 25). Identifying common orbweavers from the underside - wiki. iNaturalist
Community Forum. https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/identifying-common-orbweavers-from-the-underside-wiki/275
Team, P. W. (2025, December 30).
A beginner’s guide to fungi · planet wild. RSS. https://planetwild.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-fungi
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