My Travels: Deep South Florida Series, Post # 1: The Florida Everglades. (Next Week, Post #2: Little Havana.)

While visiting the Everglades, I was educated beyond imagination about how amazing that place is. Mother Nature keeps such a balanced eco-system where animals constantly fight for food, species eat each other and finally, the lucky ones live happily ever after.

The Everglades habitants could be as small as a mice and as large as a full grown bear. It’s impressive to know that we still have such a place in our country, where nature is protected by our government to keep it that way. If you haven’t seen it, please add it to the list of places that you want to travel this year, you won’t regret it.

When you drive through the Everglades and visit the parks or even stop by the visitor’s center, you will feel as though time stopped still in this part of the country. Trust me, there is so much nature to see, to learn and to absorb.
 
My post today will focus on alligators, since there is such a large and diverse group of flora, animals and their predators there, that it could take pages to talk about. I did my research, asked questions and learn the following:
 
There are approximately 1.5 million alligators in the state of Florida alone; however, 200,000 call the everglades their home. Even while driving, I saw lots of them basking in the sun. They grow between 7-12 feet, however, I asked a ranger and he indicated that they don’t have many 12’ in the park, just 7-10”. (Well, I saw plenty of them and to me they were scary huge :-). 

Contrary to what I thought, alligators only eat approximately 20 to 30 times a year. However, when they eat, they devour approximately 40+ pounds of meat per meal. Surprisingly to me, they don’t hunt, they just wait for edible small, medium mammals or even big deer, to swim, run or walk by them, then they strike to obtain their next “meal”.
 
Finally, there are problems everywhere and the Everglades is no exception.  A big one now involves the invasive Burmese python, believed to be inflicting significant ecological damage, eating everything along the Everglades including native species and therefore, messing up the naturally balanced eco-system. I really hope that the Parks Authority will get this under control soon. I also hope that you enjoyed my post today and thanks for reading it.
 
Next Week Post #2: Next Week: Little Havana , What a Place!