See South Padre Island, Texas, with Conservationist Scarlet Colley

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States:

Texas

Growing up on a farm in Germany, communicating with animals was always a natural part of Scarlet Colley’s life.

She attended high school and college in Texas, moving to Austin as an adult. When a shopping mall was built where her children used to play, she asked them where they would like their next house and playground to be. The beach, they replied.

On South Padre Island, Colley found a love for the sea life and dolphins that live nearby.

Known as “the dolphin whisperer,” she runs the South Padre Island Dolphin Research and Sealife Nature Center. The organization works to help protect the dolphins and sea life of the bay. It runs tours that allow visitors to experience intimate encounters with dolphins living in the shallow waters near the shore. The center also helps to educate people about the threats to sea life, to encourage more people to help protect the area’s vital habitat.

It’s not just the sea life that Colley has devoted her life to preserving. Her bird sanctuary provides a home to rare species of migrating birds, drawing bird watchers from all over the world. Colley and her husband live in an eclectic house, which they mostly built themselves, with two dogs, three cats, various fish and a potbellied pig named Penelope.