I've been out here for some time, you know, it's close to 13 years now.
I mainly drive air boats and play with all the gators.
The trails start looking more like streets to you after a while.
You have to, you know, kind of know your way.
You turn around one too many times, you know, you start heading the wrong way, everything
is the same.
I was halfway into studying biology until I was taking all the fun out of it and I just
made my way out here and sat down and just waited.
If you sit still for, you know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, you're going to see all the animals
start popping up around you.
What I'm doing with alligators is catching them and relocating them.
We rescue the nuisance animals or injured animals and we take them back out.
That's Pop Brigade.
I've known him for a long time.
His head is about the size of my arm.
I'm pretty dumb.
I walked right up to him.
When I'm down there working with him, I can touch him on the top, I can even tickle his
chin, I can't touch the sides of his mouth.
His natural reflex is anything that touches there, he's going to turn the bite at it.
That's where he'll catch fish.
He'll sit in the water with his mouth a little bit open when he feels the vibrations close
to him, he turns the bite.
So I was crouched down next to him, somebody caught my attention.
When I came back, I hit the side of his mouth, so he came down, but he kind of stopped himself
at the very last moment.
I have one little hole on the other side of my hand here.
I got really lucky.
It was after he already knew me.
He was nice enough to not come down with his 2,000 pounds of pressure.
Generations from now, they're not going to have an area like this where they can come
out here and actually see it for real, touch it, get bit by it, cut it.
This is a very unique ecosystem here.
My biggest fear is that this place is going to disappear.
It's just going to continue to get smaller and smaller.
This place disappears, they disappear too.
This is their heart, it's like living without your heart.
It's just going to disappear, it's just going to disappear, it's just going to disappear.
It's just going to disappear, it's just going to disappear, it's just going to disappear.
