John Hendow

Last weekend we undertook a little vacation to Florida to attend a wedding, but we also did some tourist activities including a visit to Gatorland. It’s a 110 acre park with innumerable birds, thousands of crocodiles and alligators, a few snakes, scorpions, turtles and a bear. I found it to be a satisfying and interesting place to visit, and even managed to wrestle an alligator (which sounds much more daring than it actually is). Everyone at the park seemed to really enjoy the attractions. Disney World and the other theme parks are more spectacular in terms of production, but there is something undeniably fascinating about seeing live animals in a natural setting. Especially when the animals are large, scaly, and have sharp nasty pointy teeth.

Read the rest of this article for more pictures.

  This was the alligator from my first picture. It’s the one I am sitting on.

  This big alligator was basking in the sun, just below the observation tower. I leaned over the safety rail to get a clear shot.

 The bird aviary is beautiful and full of happily nesting families.

 One of Gatorland’s big attractions is the “Gator Jumparoo”, in which alligators leap out of the water to snatch food being dangled above them. The trainers actually do this by hand (!) but most of the action was when the food was out above the deeper part of the tank.