When people think Florida, they think alligators. The Everglades are home to a lot more reptile and amphibian species than just alligators -- but we'll start with the gators anyway, because they really are so cool!The American AlligatorThe first alligator we saw was swimming...
After five days packed with functional morphology, disease ecology and comparative biomechanics at the SICB conference in West Palm Beach (check out "I Spent My Vacation to Florida in a Dark Windowless Room, and it was Awesome!"), my parents met up with me and we headed down to one of the ecosystems I have most wanted to see, the Everglades.
Our meals consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on whole wheat, crab cakes for my dad's birthday (happy birthday Dad!), and southern Florida specialties like fried-green-tomato-lettuce-and-bacon sandwiches and catfish-and-grits. The wildlife's culinary habits were also quite imaginative!
I hope you enjoy these short videos of lunchtime in the Everglades.
Fiddler crabs emerge from their holes to nab invisible delicacies from the mangrove mud. These little detritivores help convert mounds of fallen mangrove leaves into protein for the rest of the food chain.
