I am an "animal lover". We have two dogs (one dog was left in a box at grocery store in Miami)and one cat - I found her (weeks old and weighing almost one pound) standing next to a road in the Florida Everglades. I guess deep down I am an "environmental photographer. I want to show the effects of our lives, our environment and the changes in them. I feel I need to speak for animals. I want to show what we have before it is gone. Our world is ever changing. This is the only world we have.
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There are over 20 million people in Florida with over 1 million alligators.
Alligators at one point were considered almost extinct.
As the population grows, the wetland decrease and the chance for animal encounters increase.
Alligators can go six months a year without eating.
Alligators watch from above the water but they listen and feel the vibrations of prey from beneath the water.
Alligator wrestling started as hunting expeditions by Native Americans in the Florida Everglades.
It is now a tourist attraction.
The annual alligator egg hunts are no easy task. The air team spots gator nests and directs the airboats crews so they can go collect the eggs. The eggs are neatly marked at the top so that they are not turned. If the egg is slightly turned, then the embryo will drown and die inside the egg.
Two percent of eggs in a nest (in the wild) survive after hatching.
By the 1950s, endless hunting had almost wiped out the population.
A lizard enjoys the sunshine in the Everglades.
A Cuban Knight Anole and his passenger.
The Florida Everglades is a ecosystem unlike any other. It is home to a variety of rare and unique wildlife including a diversity of native birds, mammals, fish and reptiles.
Hunters search for pythons, a reptile that does not belong in the everglades.
Kids display the day's catch in the Bahamas.
Feeding the six foot long tarpons at Robbies Cafe in the Florida Keys.
A tarpon jumps out of the water to catch a fish dropped by a tourist.
Much about the disease - like how the turtle catch it - remains a mystery.
The tumors are caused by a "herpes" virus.
Fibropapillomatosis is a tumor-causing disease that affects sea turtles. FP causes external tumors that grow so large that they affect their ability to swim, eat and see.
Some 40% of nesting turtles have the virus.
It can be the nail in the coffin for the endangered turtles that already face habitat loss, sea level rise and drowning in fishing gear.
Fish run.
A dog and his master survey Key West before a hurricane comes ashore.
Many argue canine companions can offer comfort and ease worries.
Dogs owners claim that life is better with a dog.
Unconditional love. Devoted companionship. Constant entertainment
Spending time with a dog does wonders for people emotional state, dog owners claim.
People claim that dogs are there for their family even when no one else is around.
Research has found that 85% of the owners claim interaction with dogs reduces loneliness and can help people live longer.
Historically "cat control" meant rounding up and killing cats. Cat supporters advocate for humanely trapping the feral cats and sterilizing them.
Over the past 10-20 years science has made it clear that cats are a conservation nightmare around the world. Cats are found at population densities 10 to 100 times more profound than naturally occurring predators.
Some experts believe that feral and outdoor cats kill 2.4 billion birds each year, in addition to 12.3 billion rodents killed by the cats.
Experts have been using sign language and other methods to communicate with apes.
Workers at Miami's Jungle Island use a iPPAD to expand communication methods.
Officials report orangutans are extremely intelligent but limited in by their physical inability to talk.
A worker comforts Peanut as she undergoes cancer treatment.
During a drought period, grasshoppers covered the landscape.
A group of giraffe in West Palm Beach, Fla.
An elephant stares from its cage during a rehab stay.
Officials check the progress of an elephant doing a rehab stay.
A Florida panther is released in the everglades.
In 1907, 15 bison were sent from the New York City zoo to the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma, in order to return the bison to the wild.
At the time, there were less than 600 bison in the country.
The Wichita Mountain herd has grown to over 600 bison, with the surplus sold at auction annually.
The Comanche Chief, Quanah Parker was among those who welcomed the bison back to his old hunting grounds
The herd at the Tallgrass Prairie consists of roughly 2,700.
A bison rubs against an old utility pole, scrapping away last winter's heavy coat.
A long horn steer roams the Wichita Mountain (Oklahoma) Wildlife Refuge.
A Florida cemetery.