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Feeding Schedule at Everglades Gator Farm, Homestead, Florida.
Feeding Schedule at Everglades Gator Farm, Homestead, Florida.

Gators! Pt. 3: The Feeding Show

RoadsideAmerica.com Guide to Florida Alligator Attractions

One way to get an otherwise sullen gator to do something is to show it food. This creates motion and excitement, and when you have a dozen gators lunging and hissing at once, you have something that the public will pay to see.

The classic version of this approach was practiced at Everglades Wonder Gardens. The guide excused him or herself from the tour, ducked into a shed, and returned with a pan full of glistening, freshly-chopped meat. "You might want to stay back," the guide cautioned -- not because of the gators, but because the pan is surrounded by a cloud of buzzing horseflies. Piece after piece of meat was then hurled over a concrete wall into the pit, where the hungry gators fought for them in the pea-soup water.

Taunting with bread at Gatorama, 1985.
Taunting with bread at Gatorama, 1985.

Splashing gators is good -- but leaping gators is even better. We first saw this improvement in the 1980s, when Cecil Clemens owned Gatorama. Cecil would march out onto the boardwalk over the gator pond and dangle a loaf of bread, still in its wrapper, above the swampy green surface. Instantly -- as we remember it -- the pond would erupt into a frenzy of leaping gators. Cecil, who had a complex relationship with his reptiles, would simply chuckle, tuck the loaf under his arm, and walk back to the gift shop for a cigarette and a beer.

Gator Jumparoo show.
Gator Jumparoo show.

Cecil is gone now, and although Gatorama remains a worthy attraction -- it has almost 4,000 crocodilians in its ponds -- the forefront of gator jumping has moved to Gatorland. Perhaps inspired by the antics of Cecil, or perhaps by the leaping dolphins that used to perform at Marineland, Gatorland began its Gator Jumparoo show in the 1980s.

Gator Jumparoo works like this: A dinner bell is rung next to the big pond, and a pack of 20 or so ten-footers swim over in anticipation. The pond is surrounded by a covered boardwalk, lined with tourists, camcorders at the ready. Signs warn everybody not to lean out over the water. Music blares over loudspeakers as chicken carcasses are hung on a kind of Swiss sky ride cable-and-pulley system, then run out over the pond. The gators jockey for position, rocket out of the water -- sometimes nearly five feet straight up -- grab the meat, and then fall back with a mighty splash.

The show ends when several lucky tourists are chosen to stand on an overhanging platform and dangle carcasses at the end of fishing poles, while the rest of the gators rip chicken out of the outstretched hands of Gatorland employees.

Feeding Time at Everglades Wonder Gardens, Bonita Springs, Florida.
Feeding Time at Everglades Wonder Gardens, Bonita Springs, Florida.

The Jumparoo show is popular, and variants of it have spread to other gator attractions, but not to all. It will never pass muster at a place such as St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, which is mindful of appearances and which has gone so far as to replace the meat in many of its feeding shows with food pellets.

This may be tasteful, but it's hardly the stuff to create lasting vacation memories. Even Jim Darlington, the senior keeper at St. Augustine -- and a believer in serious gator farm management -- couldn't restrain a smile as he recalled one show in which he tossed an alligator a Nutria (a big swamp rodent), its guts fell out in mid-air, and a tough-looking biker chick promptly threw up.

RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

Wonder Gardens

Address:
27180 Old 41 Rd, Bonita Springs, FL
Directions:
I-75 exit 116. West on Bonita Beach Rd about two miles, then north on Old US 41 about one mile. West side.
Hours:
Daily 9-3 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
Phone:
239-992-2591
Admission:
Adults $12.
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RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

Gatorama

Address:
6180 US Hwy 27, Palmdale, FL
Directions:
I-75 exit 141. East on Hwy 80 (Palm Beach Blvd) 24 miles to La Belle, then north on Bridge St. for a mile, then east on Hwy 29 for 13 miles. South on US 27 about 1.5 miles.
Hours:
Daily 10-5 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
Phone:
863-675-0623
Admission:
Adults $25; optional $10 "encounters"
RA Rates:
Major Fun
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RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

Gatorland

Address:
14501 S. Orange Blossom Trail, Kissimmee, FL
Directions:
Florida Turnpike exit 249. West on Osceola Pky about 1.5 miles, then north on US 92/441 about 1.5 miles. On the right.
Hours:
Daily 10-5 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
Phone:
407-855-5496
Admission:
Adults $27, 3-12 $19, veterans free.
RA Rates:
The Best
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RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

St. Augustine Alligator Farm

Address:
999 Anastasia Blvd, St. Augustine, FL
Directions:
I-95 exit 311. Drive east on Hwy 207 for 3.5 miles. Turn right onto to Hwy 312. Drive 3.5 miles, crossing US Hwy 1 and going over a bridge spanning the Intracoastal Waterway. Turn left (north) on to Hwy A1A/Anastasia Blvd. Drive 1.5 miles. You'll see the Farm on the left.
Hours:
Daily 9-5 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
Phone:
904-824-3337
Admission:
Adults $23.
RA Rates:
Major Fun
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