My Rotary Speech to Kromboom: Wildlife of Florida


Me and Kromboom President Graham Parkhurst after my speech, handing him the banner of my sponsor club, The Sunrise Rotary of Marco Island.

On Wednesday I gave my first 30 minute speech to my host Rotary Club of Kromboom. I decided to make my speech less about me and more about where I come from to spread an understanding of my side of the world. In my presentation I showed the club pictures that I have taken in Florida of birds and animals that make Florida and the southern United States unique from anywhere else in the world. When I gave the speech I opened the dialog so that I could learn a little from them too.

Some things I found interesting: When I spoke about the Anhinga I learned that they have Cormorants here, which are very similar. When I shared a picture of our white Ibis next to their Hadeda Ibis I pointed out some similarities and differences and learned some as well. I was shocked when I showed a picture of the Roseate Spoonbill we have in Florida to find out that they have a similar Spoonbill here that is white... but they were amazed to see a pink one. I taught them a little about our migratory ducks, our egrets and herons, and our brown pelicans. I was able to show them a picture of the white pelicans we see in Florida, but gave them credit that they actually came from Africa. I shared stories about our brown anoles, manatees and wild boars. I would not have thought to talk about our sometimes bothersome friends, the raccoons, but was told over the weekend that they don't have them here and many South Africans have never seen them. When I shared a picture of our raccoons all kinds of questions came up; "Are they like our Jackal?" "Do you have them as pets?" "Are they similar to the honey badger?" Raccoons are no longer seen as wildlife in Florida because they don't live in the wild, they live in our trashcans... but we need to appreciate them nevertheless. I taught them about our Florida Panther and its current "endangered species" status. And about the American Alligator and American Crocodile. They have crocodiles in Africa which are similar to ours, but they do not have Alligators so I showed them how to spot the difference between the two.
Starfish, aka Sea Stars

White Ibis


Stingray

Sheepshead fish

Roseate Spoonbill

Raccoons

Manatee

American Alligator


Florida Panther

Brown Pelican



















Shells found in Sanibel Island, FL
The last part of my presentation was about our beach. I talked about our sand dollars, starfish and stingrays, but most importantly our shells!



Click here for another article on Sanibel Shells

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