Big Cypress

Florida is home to a host of diverse wildlife you can’t find anywhere else. Most people know of manatees and Florida panthers. But you might never have heard of the Big Cypress fox squirrel, a subspecies found only in southwest Florida.

Florida emergency officials say the fire does not threaten the state-run immigration detention facility called “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Firefighters worked on the 10,551-acre wildfire growing in the Big Cypress National Preserve east of Naples, a tactic that appears to be working as control of the Sandy Wildfire rose from 5% to 15%.

On a steamy August day, Frank Ridgely stands inside a chilly surgical suite at Zoo Miami, preparing to slice into a seven-and-a-half foot-long Burmese…