KSC-2014-2680

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A bobcat retreats from the limelight near the Press Site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The center, the only launch site for crewed missions from U.S. soil, coexists with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses 140,000 acres. The cat is the last large mammalian predator remaining on the center. The refuge provides a wide variety of habitats, including coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries and marshes, freshwater impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks, and is a sanctuary for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals, including more than 330 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles. For additional information about the refuge, visit http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett