Photos Of The Week: Christmas For Critters Across Florida

FLORIDA — Changing up our usual "Photo of the Week" feature of photos submitted by Florida Patch readers, we decided to show you how Florida's critters celebrated the holiday.

Zoo Miami had twice as many reasons to celebrate this holiday season. Wildlife expert and award-winning Zoo Miami photographer Ron Magill captured photos of two Christmas miracles.

On Dec. 16, a healthy male giraffe was born to 8-year-old Zuri and 5-year-old Malcolm. Standing over 5 feet tall, the newborn weighed 150 pounds. This is the 59th giraffe born at Zoo Miami.

Then, on Dec. 20, the zoo celebrated the birth of an addax calf. With only a few hundred left in the world, the addax is one of the most critically endangered animals. Though it once ranged throughout much of the Sahara desert in North Africa, it has now been reduced to a small reserve in Niger due to poaching and the destruction of its habitat for petroleum exploration.

This as-yet-unnamed male calf weighed just over 14 pounds. To help save animals like this little addax, Magill, who has been photographing animals for 40 years, created the Ron Magill Conservation Endowment.

Watch these turtles at The Florida Aquarium consume this Christmas tree fashioned from broccoli with ornaments of cherry tomatoes.

Nicholas, a permanent resident of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, has twice as many reasons to celebrate the holidays.

On Dec. 24, 2002, the 6-month-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin calf and his mother were rescued after being found stranded near Gibsonton. They were both suffering burns from exposure to the sun and the mother dolphin had a respiratory infection.

In honor of their Christmas Eve arrival, the aquarium named the mother dolphin Noelle and her calf Nicholas.

In addition to the respiratory illness, Noelle had third-degree burns around her dorsal fin. She died on Dec. 27, but her calf made a full recovery and has been with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium ever since.

St. Augustine Wildlife Reserve captured a photo of Dasher and Dancer sharing a kiss beneath the "mistletoe."

Dasher, born in May 2021, and Dancer, born in early 2020, are white-tailed does. Deer mothers will often leave their fawns in one spot for several hours while they browse for food. Sometimes, unfortunately, something happens to the mother and she doesn’t return to the helpless fawns who lie waiting for her.

This was the case for these two and another doe at the reserve named Prancer.

Can you spot the critter? Zoo Miami treated some of its residents to a favorite feast of left-over Christmas trees courtesy of Santa's Tree Farms, which donated its unsold trees to the zoo.

In addition to raccoons, other animals that relish snacking on the sweet resin of evergreen tree needles are bears, elephants, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, lions, tigers, moose, deer, otters, camels, giraffes, pigs, goats and some members of the monkey family.

The trees provide nutrients for the animals and are a natural dewormer. So, before you throw out your tree, you might want to check local animal sanctuaries to see if they can use it.