FLORIDA
2009
1 of 2
FLORIDA
2009
1 of 2
Made several trips to Florida this year to visit family and friends. In between other activities, managed to find a
few herps in local parks, as well as during our usual outings to the Big Cypress and Everglades.
The neighborhood where I grew up is now home to iguanas and other exotic lizards.
Here’s an opposite example, a species that seems exotic because it had become so rare, but is actually a native.
Once common throughout South Florida, crocodiles were nearly extirpated, except for a tiny population in a corner of
the Everglades. Now they’re making a comeback, thanks to years of education and conservation.
As a child I never saw a wild crocodile, but now neighbors have a resident croc in the canal behind their house.
Not the best timing for herps, so we spend a lot of time admiring birds.
Cormorants, Anhinga, Egret
Green Iguana
Iguana iguana
Brown Basilisk
Basiliscus vittaus
Black Spinytail Iguana
Ctenosaura similis
African Redhead Agama
Agama agama
female (l) and male (r)
Anhinga
male (l) and female (r)
© Rodney King
© Rodney King
American Crocodile
Crocodylus acutus
Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolor Heron (front) and Green Heron (back)
Black Vultures
Anhinga (male)
Double-crested Cormorant
male (l) and female (r)
Limpkin
Sandhill Cranes
Ibis
Mixed flock of ibises, wood storks, and roseate spoonbill
