KSC-05PD-2172

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. — A young white ibis, still with mottled feathers, stays near its nest in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which shares a boundary with NASA Kennedy Space Center. Its range is coastal from South Carolina to Florida and Texas. They prefer marshy sloughs, mud flats, lagoons and swamp forests. This and other wildlife abound throughout KSC as it shares a boundary with the Wildlife Refuge, home to some of the nation’s rarest and most unusual species of wildlife. The wildlife refuge is a habitat for more than 310 species of birds, 25 mammals, 117 fishes and 65 amphibians and reptiles. In addition, the Refuge supports 19 endangered or threatened wildlife species on Federal or State lists, more than any other single refuge in the U.S.