BY CHELLE KOSTER WALTON Special to The Miami Herald

There was a time in Florida, when "nature park" meant a penned alligator, a caged Florida panther, some rose bushes and maybe a tiger -- or some other misplaced wild creature -- tossed in for good measure.

Native and exotic flora and fauna made up the state's original roadside attractions and to this day continue to draw the curious.

But curiosity has evolved into a sophisticated yearning for knowledge and experiences without bars. As new eco-attractions open, they cater not only to the people who come looking for a true Florida adventure and learning episode, but also to the animals they come seeking.

Here's a handful that have opened in the past decade with missions to protect the wildlife and to educate on a whole new level.

BROOKER CREEK

The amazing state-of-the-art visitors center at Brooker Creek Preserve in Tarpon Springs engages all ages, all senses in learning not so much about the charismatic stars of the Florida wilds -- the manatees, sea turtles, dolphins and panthers -- but about the undersung, sometimes underfoot species.

The A Year in Florida exhibit, for instance, features videos and interactive displays that take you from summer through winter with the creek's favorite critters. Whirl a whirligig. Hear a catbird meow and an American goldfinch ask for a "potato chip." Step on an ephemeral leafy projection and peek at live aquarium specimens.

A second room replicates the creek's habitat with levers and other forms of manipulation for exploring hidden creatures. Maneuver a larger-than-life millipede through leaf litter, a weevil out of a rotting log, and an ant lion around its funnel-shaped lair.

The kids will be drawn to the gopher tortoise burrow. They go to plunge in, but then hear the faint rattling and notice the sign about "surprises" -- what also lives in the burrow. As they make their way through the tunnel, blown up to five times a true gopher tortoise habitat, they lift doors and read signs to learn about eggs, rattlesnakes, and other natural encounters turtles might experience on the crawl.

Once everyone has learned about "looking for traces in all the right places" -- identifying tracks, scat and skins -- it's time to hit the six miles of hiking trails to explore cypress dome, swamp, oak hammock and pine flatwoods.

As you learned in the education center, one must look closely to recognize the treasures saved from development by this county preserve: epiphytes, Catesby's lilies, dung beetles, zebra longwing butterflies, five-lined skinks, gopher frogs, red-billed woodpeckers, green herons and white-tailed deer.

PANTHER REFUGE

The Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, which opened near Naples in 1989, is all about protecting the endangered panther from humans. However, some six years ago, a board of stakeholders decided the refuge needed public access.

To protect both human and beast, the refuge carved out a 600-acre tract lightly visited by panthers, easily accessible from Interstate 75 and bounded by fences. Two trails opened in June 2005 as the refuge's contribution to the greater Everglades trail system.

The shorter of the two loop trails, paved with crushed shell to be wheelchair-accessible, is the easiest and driest, measuring one-third mile in length. The less developed, longer trail loops for 1.3 miles through three of the refuge's four eco-systems -- tropical hammock, wet prairie and pine-oak upland. There's also swamp habitat in the refuge, and at certain times of year the long trail resembles it.

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