May 29, 2011

Jungle Adventures Nature Park, Christmas, Florida

The World's Largest Alligator, Swampy, welcomes you at the entrance to Jungle Adventures Nature Park and Zoo in Christmas, Florida.

Hopefully this is the only time we will see an alligator's mouth from the inside.

We made it just in time for the Wildlife Show.

We all got to hold this well-behaved snake and a baby alligator.

Lunchtime.

This alligator likes to bathe in high-protein duckweed...that's the green stuff.

Safari Todd showed us how he had progressed in his training of the alligators.

Here is an alligator opening wide for a nice chunk of chicken.

Then we were ready for a Jungle Swamp Cruise.

This alligator nest was built about a year ago by an expectant mother. You can see an alligator slide in front of the nest. This is how alligators enter the swamp.

The entire swamp is covered by duckweed and contains nearly 200 alligators.

Mr. Black Bear was very friendly. He was lying down sleeping when we walked up but hopped right up and sat by his feeding tube when he heard us arrive.

This alligator appeared to be sleeping with his mouth WIDE open.

This alligator wanted us to share some nuts with him.

The snake shows us his best side.

For just a few bucks, visitors can get food for most of the animals in the park. This will allow you to make friends with this wolf.

Doug as a 16th-century conquistador.

Fort Mees is a replica of a 16th-century Spanish frontier fort and is located in the Jungle Adventures swamp.

The park also has several Florida panthers, which are part of the cougar family. These animals have been on the endangered species list since 1967! Fewer than 80 remain in the wild.

Some animals were not interested in the zoo food as they had already eaten but this fox was hungry.

This one seemed hungry too.

In case visitors think swimming in duckweed would be refreshing, the staff have warned that swimming tourists give the alligators indigestion.

See a video of alligator feeding time by clicking HERE

To see more pictures and videos, click HERE

To return to the blog home page, click HERE

To be continued...

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