Above: Claude, the albino alligator, that resides in the "swamp" at the Academy of Sciences in SF. Yes my picture is one that shouts, "I am a far-away blurry picture that a touristy photographer took while trying to elbow her way around other phone-camera touristy types." But don't let that distract you from the amazing awesomeness of Claude. (For a more menacing up close picture of him click here.) I know he looks like a petrified fossil, or something very close to stone, but he did manage to float a few inches to the left while we all gawked at him. While aiming my lens at him a stranger next to me snipped to her boyfriend, "I can't believe they just lock him up in this little swamp like a caged animal for everyone to stare at him when he could be free out in the wild!" To which I replied to her (in my head of course), "Lady, if he were out in the wild he would have been dead by now from the hands of selfish poachers who want him for his rare, expensive skin...so Claude should be thanking us all for paying money to come see him so he can continue to live in peace where he is fed every day and no one is out to spear him!" I mean, I am all for sparing animals of cruelty, but he has lived a long, lovely, peaceful life in his little swamp. I think he is happy. Wouldn't you be if you could float around in a hot tub and have someone bring you snacks?
Below: Bean, his side kick, who was much more approachable. No danger in taking her picture: the only snap snap snap being that of my shutter opening and shutting while I captured her rare beauty. Her admirers? Her family, who love and feed her daily (and sometimes clean her swamp) and will never let her go "free" into the wild without proper care and protection. We love her too much.
Bean and Claude. Their beauty: rare, unique, priceless, and worth protecting.
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