Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens - Jacksonville, Florida
Page 5 of 13

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This page includes a variety of reptiles and amphibians.

Sipowitz the American alligator turned 40 years old a few days before I captured his image.
[Huge alligator is facing thecamera with its thick tail turned to the right side of the image. It is on the ground, mostly in the shade, and has some green algae from the water on its face and back.]

American alligator enjoying January sun.
[Alligator, facing away from the camera, is completely exposed as it lies beside the water. The tail is comprised of many segments and looks as if it would strech like an accordian.]

Alligator in the water amid the duckweed plant covering the water's surface
[Just the head of the alligator is visible and even it is partially submerged and its edges are covered in duckweed. Duckweed is a small round-leafed green plant that, even though it completely blankets the water, helps oxygenate it.]

This Komodo dragon has great camoflauge skills.
[The all-brown lizard has its front legs and head resting on the brown rocks at the water's edge.]

This is the older Komodo dragon at the zoo.
[The front section , head, neck, and front legs, are visible above the grass. The lizard has the left side of its face toward the camera. It has a yellow section of skin above its eye and two wide-spaced nostrils above its mouth. Its veins are visible through the scalyness of its skin.]

Goober, an Aldabra tortoise, is estimated to be 63 years old (in 2016). He weighs 411 pounds.
[The skin color of the tortoise is approximately the same color as the sandy ground. This image is a front view of its head and neck. The nose is two hardly-noticeable depressions with a line going up the bridge and ending midway between its eyes. There is a rim of skin around the eyes as if the eyelids come from both direction.]

Goober had a visitor in 2018. Not sure if the ibis was just resting or was nesting.
[This is two images spliced together. On the left is a wide view of the tortoise enclosure. It had eight foot high vertical logs as a fence surrounding a dirt area. The huge tortoise is on the left looking at the camera. Against the fence in the right, an ibis is sitting in the tortoise's feed bowl. The image on the right is a close view of the ibis in the feet bowl. It appears to be sitting in hay, but it's hard to tell since its wings basically cover the entire opening. An ibis is a white bird with a long curved orange beak.]

Green and black poison dart frog
[The small frog sits on a leaf. It has patterns across its body and legs which alternate between light green and black.]

Blue poison dart frog
[The small frog sits in some small brown bark pieces. It has a light blue body over which are dark blue spots. Its legs are completely dark blue/purple.]

This may be a barking treefrog. (I had difficulty discerning which signs corresponded to each enclosure, especially if the creature was hiding.)
[This medium-sized frog sits in large light-green leaf. The frog is brownish with darker brown speckles on it. It has its legs curled under it and its eyes are partially open.]

Kaisers newt
[This colorful lizard with a long tail is walking toward the camera across something green. Its feet each appear to have four toes. The skin is black and beige with some orange, instead of beige, near the feet. There isalso a thin orange stripe the length of its back.]

Florida cottonmouth is also known as a water moccasin (a venomous snake).
[The tan and brown patterned snake has one eye facing the camera as it sits beside a large rock.]

The color patterns on this Green Mamba Snake almost looks as if the snake is painted.
[The long snake is wrapped several times around branches in the display. It has light green scales which are rimmed in brown/black so its very easy to see them.]

This is a mudpuppy, officially known as a Gulf Coast Waterdog. (They are aquatic salamanders.)
[The head of this creature sticks out from a opening cut in an inverted pottery dish. The waterdog is purplish with black spots and only its head is visible. It has two small eyes and a mouth on a head that looks like a flattened snake except this is under water.]

Diamondback terrapin
[This turtle has a brown shell with darker brown outlining each section of the shell. It's legs and head are white with black spots.]

This little tortoise was behind glass or I'm sure one of us would have helped to flip it back over since it seemed to be stuck in that position.
[The tortoise is on its back in the sand with its legs flailing.]

Matamata turtle in the Emerald Forest aviary pond is about 1.5 feet long.
[This turtle, submerged in the clear water of the pond, has a wrinkled-looking hard shell and ridged thick skin on its lizard-like head.]

Continue to birds in an aviary. (page 6 of 13)

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All photos © S. M. Garver