Qualla: Honey Island Swamp https://qualla.com/honey-island-swamp en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/2/5/honey-island-swamp-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Honey Island Swamp https://qualla.com/honey-island-swamp Honey Island Swamp: Introduction https://qualla.com/honey-island-swamp/ Photo credit Elisa.rolle, CC BY-SA 4.0. Somewhere between the East and West Pearl Rivers, where the canopy closes overhead and the water turns the color of dark tea, the air itself changes. It thickens with the smell of decomposing vegetation and warm mud, and the only sounds are the splash of an alligator sliding off a log and the territorial hooting of a barred owl. This is Honey Island Swamp, 70,000 acres of bottomland hardwood and cypress-tupelo wetland in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana -- named not for any sweetness in the water, but for the honeybees that once swarmed a small island at the swamp's edge. It is one of the least-altered river swamps remaining in the United States, a place where the wild still runs the show.

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Image: Elisa.rolle | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/2/5/honey-island-swamp-wp/dj25-honey-island-swamp-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Honey Island Swamp: A River's Cradle https://qualla.com/honey-island-swamp/ Photo credit Elisa.rolle, CC BY-SA 4.0. Honey Island Swamp sits in the floodplain of the Pearl River, which forms the border between Louisiana and Mississippi before emptying into Lake Borgne and the Gulf of Mexico beyond. The swamp stretches from U.S. Route 11 in the north to the brackish waters of Lake Borgne in the ...

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Image: Elisa.rolle | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/2/5/honey-island-swamp-wp/dj25-honey-island-swamp-a-rivers-cradle.mp3 0:06 2 full Honey Island Swamp: Wild Residents https://qualla.com/honey-island-swamp/ Photo credit Elisa.rolle, CC BY-SA 4.0. The species list for Honey Island reads like a catalog of the Gulf South's most iconic wildlife. American alligators patrol the waterways, sometimes reaching twelve feet in length. Alligator snapping turtles -- prehistoric-looking creatures with ridged shells and powerful jaws --...

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Image: Elisa.rolle | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/2/5/honey-island-swamp-wp/dj25-honey-island-swamp-wild-residents.mp3 0:06 3 full Honey Island Swamp: The Creature in the Cypress https://qualla.com/honey-island-swamp/ Photo credit Elisa.rolle, CC BY-SA 4.0. No account of Honey Island Swamp is complete without its most famous -- and most elusive -- resident. Since at least the 1960s, locals and swamp tour guides have reported encounters with a large, bipedal, ape-like creature moving through the dense cypress stands. Described as a t...

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Image: Elisa.rolle | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/2/5/honey-island-swamp-wp/dj25-honey-island-swamp-the-creature-in-the-cypress.mp3 0:06 4 full Honey Island Swamp: The View from Above https://qualla.com/honey-island-swamp/ Photo credit Elisa.rolle, CC BY-SA 4.0. From a few thousand feet, Honey Island Swamp reveals its true scale: a vast, dark-green carpet of canopy broken only by the silver threads of waterways and the occasional open marsh. The Pearl River splits into its east and west channels, braiding around the swamp in a pattern th...

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Image: Elisa.rolle | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/2/5/honey-island-swamp-wp/dj25-honey-island-swamp-the-view-from-above.mp3 0:06 5 full