Alligator Farm

Today we went to Insta-Gator, an Alligator Farm in Louisiana...only in Louisiana! The "farmers" go out every year and steal the alligator eggs from the Mama Alligators' nests and take them back to these hatcheries and raise them like their own...and let tourists like us pay to get their pictures taken with them! Reily had a great time...and got very excited to see the live alligators.

Honestly though, they are doing a good thing--Before they started these "Alligator Farms," about 30 years ago, there were only 150,000 alligators in Louisiana (which apparently made them endangered). Today, there are more the 3 million alligators in Louisiana alone...just about 3 million more than I'd care to run across while out for a swim in the Bayou...

We were able to feed the alligators, pet them, and learn lots and lots of interesting facts, like:
1) The farms are only permitted to release 14% of the alligators from the eggs they hatch and raise--they "harvest" the rest of the alligators. This produces a lovely (and lucrative) array of alligator-skin shoes, purses, and belts, as well as delicious alligator meat (all available in the gift store).

2) The farmers are able to control the sex of the alligator--if they incubate the eggs at less than 86 degrees, all of the eggs turn into baby girl alligators. If they incubate at more than 92 degrees, they get all baby boy alligators. Hmmm...

3) If you've read all of this about Alligators, you only know about 1/100th of what we learned, which is still probably more than you care to know...and you deserve to see some photos!

Here's Reily petting the "runt" 10 month old alligator. Funny to think they're the same age!

Here we are feeding the "normal" sized 10 month old alligators. Guess what we fed them? Marshmallows. Yes, marshmallows. This is the alligator the "farmer" wrestled and took out for us to pet and touch. They taped its mouth shut and we were all able to hold it--we got a cute family shot with Hans holding the alligator, but it's copyrighted. You'll just have to see it when we're back home! Hans and Reily with the huge alligator--notice how they're all giving the "Hans look!" Like Father, Like Son, Like Alligator.