Gators!

I'm finally getting time to work on my blog. I've been busy... but I've got a couple of entries I want to do. First, Gators! I was just in Florida for a week and I was fascinated by the ecosystem and wildlife. I didn't bother with the amusement parks even though I stayed right next to one.

I went to Gatorland and it was very interesting although sometimes creepy. I was ready about someone who had a gator phobia. I don't but then I don't have to get in water where some might be. If I did, I probably would too.

They are the most prehistoric, evil looking critters. They said at Gator land that they have a brain the size of a peanut. I don't know, but this guys were a little sluggish because it had been cold. Interesting to look at, but I didn't want to get too close.

There were little tiny baby gators. They didn't look any nicer than the big gators. I wouldn't want anything to do with these guys either. In the wild, 60% of Baby gators are killed by other gators or animals before the get very big. So I guess that's why they have so many babies. So "farmed" gators aren't eaten by wild animals and so they get "harvested" for other things. They were selling gator tail and gator ribs. I tried the tail. It was breaded and deep fried. It didn't taste like much but tough meat. I just tried about 3 bites. I thought since it was on the menu that other people would have tried it, but the waitress and my friend from there, both thought it was "gross". So...

There were LOTS of adolescent gators. I saw lots of adolescent gator heads that had been "harvested" and were for sale. I have to admit, while I'm not a fan of this practice, I did buy one for my nephew because my sister asked me to.

So then there was the gator wrestling show. They pick a kid out of the audience to choose a gator out to the pond for the guy to "wrestle". Then he pulls him out of the tank by his tail and shows us his mouth, closed and open, etc. He flips him over and puts him into a "sleep" and then wakes him up by tickling him. Interesting. He said the whole gator wrestling thing was from when the "crackers" were farming cows and gators would hide in the watering holes. He said the rancher would tell the hands to get the gators out of the holes.

A couple of days later, I went on a river tour to see manatees. We also saw "wild" alligators. They were really hard to see and even scarier to me because of that. There were quite a few of them and you would just see some eyes and then farther back, some "tire treads" sticking out of the water. I sure don't want to go swimming in Florida!