Hatchling Alligators, Big Cypress Swamp, Florida, 1994
Hatchling alligators break free of their shells in Big Cypress Swamp in the Florida Everglades. Babies who have trouble emerging get a surprisingly delicate assist from the tooth-lined jaws of their mother.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Everglades: Dying for Help," April 1994, National Geographic magazine)