Want some advice about alligators?
#3 Orland0 Florida
Don’t come to me. I’m visiting here in Orlando, Florida with my California neighbors, Carmen and Taliah and friend, Janice from Tennessee. And we’ve come to Gatorland to see and learn about alligators.
Do you love Strange Inheritances? This is not Gatorama, but Gatorland is farther north, 18 miles or 30 minutes from Orlando, also a family-owned business.
When to Visit Gatorland
I’ve been to Florida in August, and I don’t recommend it. However, going to Gatorland in March is perfect. There weren’t many mosquitos. The day I wore body lotion, the bugs loved me, but as long as I didn’t smell, the bugs didn’t bother me.
It’s warm in the sun, but walking through the covered pathways is pleasant even in mid-afternoon.
The covers provided some shade to the alligators as well. Unlike dolphins, which you will read about in another post, alligators don’t have sensitive skin. Their black coloring makes them almost invisible in the water.
The next gator would have been tricky to see if he had been cruising underwater.
Gatorland groups gators by age and color. The young ones are first in line.
Bigger than Life
Towards the rear of the walkway lives the Brutus of Gatorland, Chester. Just as I was closing in to take pictures of Chester, Carmen swooped in and shooed us down to the Gator wrestling show, which was well worth the rush. Poor Carmen, she had to mother all of us to keep us on track to see everything.
When we came back, Chester was pooped. Here is Diego Centeno’s YouTube video of Chester.
Real Gator Wrestling
Sure, it’s easy to wrestle a gator if you watch the actor. No sweat. He chose a volunteer to come out on the sandy platform with him to pick out a lazy gator. The youngster refused. So the youngster pointed to a swimming alligator instead of the sleepy sunbathing gators.
Mr. Gator Wrestler grabbed that little gator by the tail and dragged it ashore. Kicking the other gators aside, he began his show.
Miss Gator seemed to be dragging her feet a bit. She was not the shining star that Nicholas is. You’ll see him in another post.
The G-Wrestler asked the crowd to name the most dangerous part of the alligator. Some poor soul shouted, “Tail.”
Probably the respondent was a plant in the audience. Either that or he didn’t watch Mr. G-Wrestler drag Miss Gator out onto the sandy stage.
Mr. G-Wrestler proceeded to show us how easy it was to lose fingers and hands in the G-wrestling business. He somehow pried open the gator’s mouth and withdrew as it snapped shut.
It doesn’t take much pressure to hold a gator’s mouth shut. The trainer held it with his chin. I hope the gator smelled good.
Other Animals that Repulse and Intrigue
The next actors thrilled the audience by letting volunteers participate, usually with their eyes closed at first. The rest of the audience responded with appropriate scared noises, which didn’t seem to bother the volunteers. They had probably checked out someone’s blog post before going to Gatorland and knew what was coming.
You can’t see what he’s putting on her hand. It’s a tarantula.
Taliah’s favorite, though not venomous, was the snake. We saw the same snake curled up in his house, and we could have crawled into the house with him if we had chosen to do so.
White Alligators Are Rare
Three of only twelve leucistic gators exist here at Gatorland. Apparently, they are not personable.
It was hard to get up close, so I let Taliah take the first shot at him. She got a little annoyed with me taking pictures of her taking pictures, but it was fun watching her quickly manipulate the image with her thumbs before saving it.
Up close, he didn’t look too scary since there was a glass wall between us and he had his eyes closed.
Birds Kicked at the Gators
A gator could snap a bird’s leg off in a second, but that fact did not seem to worry any of these feathery creatures. We saw one bird kick her spindly leg at a gator swimming towards her with his mouth open. The gator turned and swam away. That was not the response I expected.
This mutton-headed bird dared to bark orders to the alligators on the feeding deck. Don’t you love its geometric shadow?
Gatorland rated lower than Bloggy Creek but higher than most of the Animal Kingdom on the Entertainment Scale.
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Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
16 responses to “What You Should Know About Alligators: Instructions at Gatorland”
[…] What Should You Know About Alligators […]
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I’m amazed that people got so close to the gators! Here we are SO careful to stay away from them. We had 2 fatal encounters recently. In the first case the coroner ruled the man died before the gator took him. In the second a woman tried to get close enough for a selfie and the gator grabbed her. Friends came to her rescue but the gator was stronger and he drowned her befor authorities could save her. That is NOT. A good way to die! That said, loved your description of the fun day and laughed at your comment re the bugs and heat😊
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Thanks Tina. Your stories are gruesome. We are so isolated from nature that when we are in it, we forget it is not like a walk in the mall. We were at the Grand Canyon when a fellow took a selfie, and backed up, falling into the Canyon. Nature is beautiful, but not kind. Selfies scare me, not just because the camera is way too close either! 🙂
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Oh my, that’s equally awful! I cannot understand people doing things like that!
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If only we didn’t have to die! I don’t know a super easy way to go about it, but getting gobbled by an alligator or falling off a cliff taking a selfie is not one of them. 🙂
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Great post. I especially liked the word “leucistic.”
We wandered around Gatorland shortly after moving here some years ago. Chester was impressive.
Beautiful shot of the pale gator, by the way.
I almost stepped on a slumbering alligator just the other day.
Just thought I’d throw that in there.
Cheers.
toadthing
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LOL. I was amazed at the skinny legged bird, that flipped his foot at an open jawed gator swimming towards him. The gator left him alone. I would not have tried that! 🙂
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Gators are sweet and the birds seem to love them, despite occasional tiffs over who gets to keep said bird’s leg. I sometimes see egrets or other wading birds dozing away while stealing a ride on a gator’s back as he languidly cruises the swamp, (trolling for toothy gator babes, I imagine). These touring boats, I mean alligators, also often sport some lovely swamp plant accessories to complement the avian ones- do you think this kind of gator glam will catch on? I must admit, the plant-and-bird-draped-look is rather fetching.
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So cute. There’s nothing like an algae jacket with a bird collar. 🙂
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I so agree. 😉 Fonzie would be jealous, I think.
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My lifetime goal – to make Fonzie jealous. 🙂
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I thought so. Mine too, naturally. 😀
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LOL
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[…] What you Should Know about Alligators : Instructions at Gatorland […]
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I like the birdies but I’m not crazy about gators. 🙂 🙂 Many thanks for the link, Marsha.
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I’m with you, Jo! I think if gators are well-fed, though, they are easier to manage. Even a bird could do it! 😜😜
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