“You could’ve gotten lost, run out of fuel, gotten into an accident, or worse—run into some bad people!” Mom said. “These mangroves are not safe for two kids to wander around all alone.”

Feye hung his head low, avoiding looking at our mother. Now it was my turn to speak for us.

“Mom, we just wanted to help. We knew you were all busy, and we didn’t want to bother you. We wanted to show how responsible we could be, too,” I said. Our mother leaned in close and gave us both a big hug. Feye and I looked at each other, pressed against our mother’s chest, surprised. We were expecting her to yell at us, not give us a hug!

“Do not do that again. Understand?” Dad said, arms crossed in front of him. “You’re grounded, and we will be talking about your appearances on the show with Mr. Savage.”

We bowed our heads and nodded.

Mom turned toward us. “While we don’t agree with how you went about everything, we are proud of you for figuring out that she had laid eggs. You really helped her out. I don’t know if you know this, but American crocodiles are actually listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN,” she said.

“What’s the IUCN?” Feye asked.

“IUCN stands for the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It’s the world’s oldest environmental organization. Their job is to tell scientists and conservationists, like us, how animals and plants are doing. Are their populations okay? Do they need better protection?” Dad explained, pulling up the IUCN website on his tablet. He showed us different animals like sharks, elephants, lions, sea turtles, and even some species of mice. Each said “Vulnerable,” “Endangered,” or “Extinct in the Wild.”

Dad took the tablet once again and typed something into the website. Up came a picture of the American crocodile with what I recognized as the scientific name underneath: Crocodylus acutus. It said VULNERABLE in big letters.

“What does Vulnerable mean for the crocodiles?” I asked.

“Vulnerable for any animal means that the IUCN thinks they will become endangered unless scientists and other people can help them out,” Mom said. “That means we need to protect them. Usually an animal gets the label Vulnerable because people have destroyed their habitat or hunted them too much.”

“American crocodiles have lost a lot of their homes due to humans,” she continued. “So zoos all over the world, like ours, have breeding programs. That means we help the crocodiles get together and make babies. In some places, people actually steal crocodile eggs, too, so these are very important to keep. We’ll be able to help them hatch safely. That will help their numbers here.”

“So does that mean we will have more than thirty crocodiles at the zoo? That’s a lot of mouths to feed!” Feye looked on, a bit horrified. He helped cut up the food for the big crocodiles and was probably thinking of all the extra work he would have to do.

Mom and Dad laughed, shaking their heads. “We’ll figure that out once we’re home and at the zoo. But we definitely won’t keep all of them. Some may go to other zoos, while the others will get released back out into the wild,” Mom said.

“How will we know if the babies make it?” I asked, wondering if we could ever come back to Cuba and say hi to them.

“We’re going to put tracking tags on the ones we release back into the wild,” Dad replied. “That way we can see where they go! If we get the funding for it, we might be able to come here once a year with crocodile scientists and measure how big they have gotten and how many are still around. We can talk about it with a few friends when we get back home.” Dad looked at Mom, who nodded in agreement.

*  *  *

The next morning, we all sat at breakfast in silence, enjoying the sights and sounds of the mangrove forest through the boat hotel’s windows for the last time.

Mr. Savage knocked on the door and cleared his throat. “All right, Villalobos family. Pack up your things. The boat to take us inland will be arriving shortly. We’ve got a long day ahead of us to get this croc and her eggs back to Sacred Sanctuary and Zoological Park.” He opened the door behind him widely so we could all get out and up to our rooms to finish packing.

When I was done, I picked up Duke and walked over to Connor.

“Should we try to find someone willing to adopt Duke? I want to bring him back, but my parents won’t let me.” I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

“Don’t worry, Adrianna. I’ll take care of Duke, okay?” Connor said.

“Just promise me that he won’t end up on the streets or in a pound.”

“I promise,” Connor said, and coaxed Duke from my arms.

The rest of the team would join us back home in the next few days. With hugs all around to the Cuban film crew, and a final pet and scratch for Duke, we stepped into the boat and drove away from the mangroves one last time. I looked down into the crocodile holding container and smiled, glad we had rescued this mama.

The boat ride wasn’t too long, and I spent most of it staring at the blue shades in the water. Every now and then a flying fish would soar next to our boat wake, frightened by the noise and possibly saying hello. Just in case they were saying hello, I waved to every single one I saw.

Feye came to sit down next to me. “Why’d you stop me from telling Mr. Savage about the footage we took of that massive croc? Did you want all the credit or something?”

“No, no, I—”

“You don’t have to keep trying to prove yourself to everyone, you know. Mom and Dad might be worried about your safety, but you did a lot of things right and really showed you have what it takes to be a part of this show.”

I smiled at the compliment, nudging him as a thanks. But that wasn’t the reason at all.

“How many really big crocodiles are out there, Feye? They’re a Vulnerable species. So it’s our responsibility to protect the big ones, like this so-called ‘Mega Croc,’ whenever we can.” I took a deep breath. “I don’t think we should give the footage over to Mr. Savage.”

“What! But the show is in jeopardy!” argued Feye.

“I don’t think it is anymore. Mr. Savage said that the production team had enough drama to work with, now that we have the eggs. And there’s lots of other stuff, too—the mistake I made with the tag, my bite, us finding the injured croc! If we give the Mega Croc footage to Mr. Savage, we could possibly lead the poachers right to where we found it. Or a bunch of new ones, even. Any of them could end up killing the Mega Croc!”

Feye didn’t say anything, but he looked thoughtful.

“We always say keeping wildlife safe and helping animals is what we love doing most. So, let’s do that,” I said. “We don’t need a TV show to prove anything.”

“But the TV show lets us help even more animals,” Feye countered.

“Not like this! Not by showing poachers where rare and special animals like the Mega Croc are.”

That got through to Feye. He nodded and pulled out his phone. Together we deleted the footage.