![\"Elvia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788951136_993_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nElvia G\u00f3mez Troya didn\u2019t spend her summers on the phone or at the local movie theater with friends.<\/p>\n
She spent her summer in Sumatra tracking tigers and elephants, then in Benin working on a scientific bird tagging project. Finally, she ended her summer in Miami to share her journey as a young environmental conservationist with young South Floridians.<\/p>\n
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Elvia with her father, Fernando G\u00f3mez, a renowned international wildlife tracker and author of several books on wildlife tracking, during one of the activities they jointly led for students at the Miami Children\u2019s Museum Charter School.<\/p>\n
Fourteen-year-old G\u00f3mez Troya travelled to Miami from her hometown of Navarra, Spain, to speak about her book, \u201cThings That Blow My Mind About Animals,\u201d<\/a> which she wrote when she was 11 and was recently translated into English.<\/p>\n She wants children to discover the importance of the environment early, the way she did when she was younger. Whether it\u2019s nature or sports, \u201cyou don’t need to be an adult to make your dreams possible,\u201d she told an audience at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science and the Miami Children’s Museum recently.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Could another shake-up be coming for national parks? Former superintendents are worried<\/a><\/p>\n \u201c\u200aYou don’t have to go so far away to see many beautiful things,\u201d G\u00f3mez Troya said. \u201cI feel connected to nature. It’s like a superpower because it’s like you can talk with nature with your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n G\u00f3mez Troya said she hopes that people will look for small moments of joy in nature in their own neighborhoods after reading her debut book.<\/p>\n Known as Elvia \u201cla rastreadora\u201d or \u201cthe tracker\u201d online, she has over 50,000 followers on Instagram <\/a>and posts her journey tracking animals around the world with her parents. Her father, Fernando G\u00f3mez, is a professional wildlife tracker and with her family she has been able to track reindeer in Finland and jackals in Bulgaria.<\/p>\n As a nature enthusiast, G\u00f3mez Troya said she visited parks like Biscayne National Park where she took the oath to become a citizen reef ranger. She also visited Everglades National Park where she said she saw a lot of gators despite it being very dry. <\/p>\n G\u00f3mez Troya, who is just starting high school, said she is working on translating her second book into English. It’s science-fiction story where the main character has a power that connects her to nature. <\/p>\n Her goal is to show that when we hurt the environment, we ultimately hurt ourselves because we live in a symbiotic world.<\/p>\n