The Wildlife of Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a biodiverse country with 215 amphibian species, 895 birds, 1151 fish, 252 mammals, and 269 reptiles. This ranks as the 27th most biodiverse country in the world (Brazil has the highest overall biodiversity index). Yet, Brazil is 167 times larger than Costa Rica. When land area is taken into account, Costa Rica […]

La Chua Trail

A persistent dilemma for the traveler is whether to visit some place new or return to a place you have visited before and like. Of course, different individuals weigh these options differently. At a broad scale, two extremes could be: visiting the same place for vacation every year, versus always visiting someplace new. On an […]

Alligator Diet Observations

The question of what alligators eat has mostly been addressed through stomach content analysis. A sample of dead alligators, often harvested by hunters, have their stomachs opened, and all the prey items contained within are identified. Another approach involves capturing live alligators and removing their stomach contents through pumping or the Hose-Heimlich technique. This avoids […]

Dry Season Everglades

Before moving to Florida, I wasn’t aware of how distinct the wet and dry seasons were here, and the profound effect this has on the landscape and wildlife. The wet season is summer, and the dry season is the rest of the year. It still rains in the dry season, but substantially less than in […]

World Animal Coins

What coins depict – people, animals, plants, events, places, achievements, symbols – tell the story of civilizations and what they value. The world’s oldest known coin was produced in the kingdom of Lydia (modern day Turkey) over 2,500 years ago. It depicts a lion. Coins depicting animals have been a common theme in subsequent centuries, […]

Blue-tailed Lizards

Recently, while looking through some of my old wildlife photos I came upon one of a blue-tailed lizard that I photographed in Mozambique in 2010. What really struck me is how similar this lizard, a female Rainbow skink, looks to a species I recently photographed in Maryland and Florida, the American five-lined skink. They both […]

Warning: Alligators and Snakes

I recently contributed a set of ‘Readers’ Wildlife Photos’ to a website I follow. I chose alligator photos because that’s what I have been photographing lately. One of the comments on this set of photos really struck me: “Alligators are kind of fascinating to me because they are (I think) the only potentially deadly predators […]

Deer and Alligator Standoff

American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) occasionally eat deer. The largest (verified) alligator on record was 15 feet 9 inches long and weighed 1,1011.5 pounds. Unfortunately, this alligator was killed by hunters in Alabama in 2014. As described by the taxidermist who prepared its skin and skeleton, this alligator had a partially digested deer carcass in its […]

Ratsnake Hunting Behavior

Ratsnakes are large snakes (over 6 feet as adults) found in the eastern United States. The Virginia Herpetological Society reports that they are the most commonly seen snake in Virginia. This is the case because they move around a lot and are often found near human habitation (such as barns and old buildings) where their […]

Incredible wildlife amongst ruins of an abandoned zoo

Key Biscayne is a small barrier island less than 5 miles from downtown Miami. About half the island consists of a park (Crandon Park), which itself contains a golf course, a world-class tennis facility that formerly held the Miami Open, beautiful white sand beaches, and an abandoned zoo which is now a botanic garden. While […]