A tour around the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, St. Augustine, FL.

The name “Alligator Farm” has been around since 1893, but it is much more than about alligators these days. It is in fact a zoological park, conservation facility and breeding facility, hosting hundreds, perhaps thousands of tourists a day.

Since I had never seen a living alligator it was one of the places  I put on my ‘must see’ list, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The Alligator Farm is a marvellous facility. A boardwalk tour (click on map to enlarge) takes you through an international collection of birds, animals and reptiles collected or bred right there.

I had a chance to visit it this week, and I took my camera along to capture some memories. So this post is primarily photos of that tour.

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Reading from the top down, these first shots are of the alligator enclose.

This following  alligator (on right) is 15-feet long, and 1,500 pounds…

But he’s only a pup compared to “Gomek,” who measured nearly twenty-feet long, and weighed in at 2,000 pounds.

Here is “Gomek” again, permanently on display

One of the most the most attractive displays was in the rookery–especial the egrets who are in full mating plumage. Enjoy…

Not to be outdone for beauty is this “rosy spoonbill,” who is doing a balancing act while preening…

The setting itself is beautiful as well, and so in-between looking at the birds and reptiles you can admire the flowers

There are other birds on display as well, and the first is of the stork variety

And what jungle display would be complete without parrots

There are more to come, but I’ll leave those to another post.

Until next time,

Gerry