Gatorama

Monday was largely spent driving all over Florida, from Ft Lauderdale in the east to state route 29 in the west (about 3/4 of the way), then north and east to Daytona Beach, where I spent the night.

I did, however go one place that was quite brilliant: Gatorama, just outside Palmdale. It's really an alligator farm - they breed the little bastards commercially, and then sell them to anything from zoos to the slaughterhouses and everything in between (I saw some handbags in their souvenir shop... the cheapest ones started at 1,500 USD!).

I'll divide this segment into pieces too, partially due to the number of pics (although I am only uploading a fraction of the total number of pics, I mean, how many gator pics do you need to see?) and partially due to the length of the posts. This post will contain pics of birds and other animals (not gators & crocs) at Gatorama.

All Gatorama pics here.

Florida Panther. I spent about three hours in all at Gatorama, and he slept the whole time.


Same goes for this lazy lil' fella, the raccoon. He at least had the decency to sleep in a cute position.


One of the poor bobcats was getting harassed by the vultures. A groundskeeper told me he absolutely hated the birds, and they knew it.


His tormentors - that's the bobcat enclosure on the right.


A big ole turtle.


This would be my position too, if I had to live with a dozen gators - huddled in a heap in the corner.


This little guy is the first thing that greets visitors, very sociable and talkative.


This guy sits in solitary confinement, and will have your finger off if you're stupid enough to wiggle them inside his cage.


Same thing with this couple...


Cute pic.


Peafowl ducklings. Not very pretty.


The pea hen is downright ugly.


And the peacock is surely the most gay animal in the whole, wide kingdom of animals.