# @natgeo on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CaF7FRtPyIk
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11681481-natgeo-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/f094ca9f6d.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-02-17T20:54:11.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** National Geographic (@NatGeo) — https://gondola.cc/NatGeo

## Caption

Photos by carltonward | Today we celebrate the people who work behind the scenes with photographers: the assistants. Malia Byrtus manages the remote camera systems for my Florida-based Path of the Panther project, and she helped produce many of the photos in "Return of the Panther," a story in the April 2021 issue. 

Malia is a true explorer, in practice and at heart. She joined me as an intern in 2017, and in her first week on the job had a chance to test her mettle. I was away at en event, and wet season came early to the South Florida swamps. Malia went to rescue our most vulnerable low-lying cameras from rising floodwaters. After my truck got stuck in mud so deep that water seeped in through the doors, she figured out how to use a winch to pull the truck to higher ground. Then she waded in waist-deep to rescue the camera. When Malia encountered a large alligator in her way, she cut a long walking stick to poke the water ahead of her, discouraging the toothy reptile from coming closer. In the end, she saved the cameras, proving she was ready for all the challenges the Everglades would bring over the next five years. When she's not setting camera traps or training volunteers, she dedicates her time to inspiring students at the local Seminole Reservation. The PathofthePanther project has been supported by the National Geographic Society to inspire protection of the Florida Wildlife Corridor. insidenatgeo fl_wildcorridor #KeepFLWild

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