Gatorland (Day 3 of 4)

I thought my legs & feet would be wore out from all the walking we did at Disney the day before but it was not the case at all. I guess I can thank running for strengthening my leg muscles.

We slept in a bit and got to Gatorland just after 1pm.

Gatorland opened in 1949 & has been privately owned by the same family for 64 years. It was founded by Owen Godfrey who opened the park with the name "Snake Village". In 1954 it changed to Gatorland. The park is 110 acres with a petting zoo, an alligator breeding marsh, a bird sanctuary, swamp walk area & a 1000+ foot zip line with 7 platforms. They also have a gator wrestling show, gator jump show & a reptile/snake show.

Coming here after visitng Disney the day prior, I wasn't expecting much & almost wished we had visited this park first. I was afraid that J would not like it as much but he really had a good time. We saw all kinds of animals from raccoons to albino alligators. 

 The reptile show Up Close Encounters was quite entertaining. These 2 guys were really funny & good at keeping the kids attention. After the show, they let you hold an Albino Burmese Python. They charge $5 to hold the snake, this fee/donation goes toward the care of the animals.

Diamond Back Rattlesnake

J holding a Albino Burmese Python

We walked through the breeding marsh and bird sanctuary. I really loved it, so many picture opportunities. 

not sure what was up with his legs & part of his wing

obviously they have claimed this tree

Alligator taxi 

Wood Stork was or is on the endangered species list

We watched the Gator Wrestling Show. I thought it was kind of cheesy & a bit silly but the all the kids seemed to love it. J was first in line to sit on the gator.

My favorite part of the park was visiting the Very Merry Aviary. It is an enclosed room filled with 100+ Parakeets & Lorikeets. You can purchase a seed stick for $1. They were so cute & will come sit on your shoulder, arm or anything just to get a chance to eat the seeds. While holding the stick, bits of it would fall and land on my feet. I looked down to see a handful of them hopping around on top of my feet and pecking at my toes. It took everything I had to keep from kicking my feet because it tickled so bad.

We were on our way to the last show of the day, the Gator Jumperoo Show, when they were transporting the big parrots.

The Gator Jumperoo Show was where we got to see the gators jump out of the water to eat the hand held chicken pieces.

Overall it was a fun park to visit.