Oviedo installs wildlife signs, QR codes in city parks

Wildlife signs and QR codes now greet parkgoers at five Oviedo parks, where the city is trying to turn casual sightings into citizen-science data and safer encounters with animals.

The City of Oviedo completed installation of the “Wildlife Whereabouts” signs on April 23, 2026, putting them in Center Lake Park, Round Lake Park, Sweetwater Park, Solary Park and Riverside Park. The signs connect visitors to a GIS-based interactive map that shows approved, verified sightings and gives species-specific information pulled from the city’s wildlife materials.

The program began in May 2025 through the city’s Public Works Department Stormwater Division. Residents can submit photos and pin locations through the online map, and the new signs include QR codes that send users to the same system. City officials describe the effort as citizen science, but it is also a practical public-safety tool: Oviedo says the map is meant to build awareness of wildlife, floodplain habitats and flood hazards.

That matters in a city where park trails and wetland edges often overlap. Oviedo says the program is meant to highlight native, managed, threatened and endangered species, along with the habitats that support them, including swamps, marshes, wetlands, hardwoods, flatwoods, ponds, lakes and rivers. The city says those floodplains help reduce non-point source pollution and property damage, making the signs part conservation message and part stormwater education.

The species list reads like a quick field guide for Seminole County parks: bald eagles, sandhill cranes, owls, otters, alligators, deer, snakes and turtles. Oviedo says the materials are intended to inspire young biologists, nature lovers and photographers, but the guidance is grounded in caution. The city tells residents to keep a safe distance from wildlife, avoid feeding animals, keep children away from dangerous species and leave nests and offspring alone. Feeding wildlife is against the law, the city says.

The city’s wildlife page also puts the signs in a broader local context. Oviedo says its location along Seminole County’s rural boundary makes it a prime setting for human-bear interactions, especially near the Little and Big Econlockhatchee Rivers, and that several bear sightings have been reported over the past several months. Seminole County’s Urban Bear Management Area guidance says garbage and recycling should be secured inside a garage, shed or other structure until at least 5 a.m. on collection days, underscoring that the new park signs are arriving in a county where wildlife management is already part of daily life.