This lizard has been living on my bonsai trees for at least 3 months now. It and I (or my trees) have a truly symbiotic relationship; it is happy to be inside the screen of my porch where birds cannot get to it, and in exchange it eats all the little bugs that get through the screen and could potentially hurt my bonsai trees (not to mention its Zoolander style posing for the picture in this website). I wondered how much longer this honeymoon would last, and found that these creatures can live up to 4 to but have been known to live for 8 years in captivity (I'm hoping that I live longer than the lizard). As a point of reference, the longest mice live in captivity is around 4 years which is a big stretch from their lifespan measured in months when in the wild (read more about lifespan of animals from this article). The lizard is shown close to a black olive bonsai. It might not be a coincidence that both the tree and the lizard are natives of the Bahamas, hence the lizards affinity for this tree. And, according to Wikipedia, this "anole" is a she because of the light stripe on "her" back.

This is the largest alligator I've seen in my backyard; it must be just about 7 feet long, although my neighbor says it is 5 feet. In this occasion, the gator looked really guilty, so I took my camera with tripod out and set an automatic timer to photograph it. As I started the trigger the reptile "jumped" out of the water and stopped about 8 feet from the camera, just staring at it. This truly scared me... you can say this alligator wasn't camera shy or scared of humans at all; by the time I decided to call animal control, it was already Sunday, and it seems animal control at least here in Tampa, Florida, only works office hours. To the left is the gator before it bursted out of the water, and the gator looking at the camera on the right of the image.

This interesting creature was crossing the street that leads to my home on a very hot summer day (June2005). It was stuck trying to go from the pavement to the sidewalk. As soon as I saw it, I went to to my home and got thick gardening gloves and my camera of course. The decision to get the gloves was a very wise one since once I grabbed this turtle, unlike normal turtles, it extended its legs and long -sharp- claws and scratched my gloves very very hard, so much that it slightly scratched my forearms (this type of turtle is very different from common turtles in that it is very aggressive), be careful if you decide to get this close to one. While the shell is supposed to be "soft", it didn't deform at all when I grabbed this amphibian. You can read more about these creatures from the Smithsonian Institution.

I took this picture this June (2006) in the pond in my backyard. It turns out that while the dove in the left of the picture was trying to feed on the bird seeds my neighbor puts on the grass, this little gator sneaked in. The dove was aware of my presence while I was trying to take this picture, and my only worry besides taking the picture was that the gator would take advantage to jump into action and secure the meal. Fortunately for the dove, it lived beyond this episode since it flew away when the gator jumped out of the water.