Sometimes Animals Are Just Weird

I like to travel around Florida whenever I have a day off or two. And I always like seeing local zoos, or animal sanctuaries too. So when I was cruising around St. Augustine a few weeks back we stopped into the Alligator Farm Zoological Park. Its one of the oldest attractions in all of Florida having opened its doors originally in 1893. They have a huge Gator collection, along with a bunch of other animals in a really cool setting, especially including the zip lines you can ride over the gator enclosures. But that’s for another blog lol.

While I was there, however, I noticed some animals that were, well, interesting to say the least. Some were regular animals doing weird things, and some were just weird on their own. So I thought I’d share a few here with you.

First up is one of the main attractions, and one of the biggest gators I’ve ever seen. Originally the home of Gomek, one of the largest crocodiles ever in captivity at 2,000 pounds and 18 feet long. This dude, Maximo, is now one of the largest at 15 feet and 1,200 pounds.

That’s just his face. Here’s a shot of ALL of him. Pretty sure he could almost swallow me whole.

Next in line is a...I don’t even remember what its called because I spent too long laughing at its neck sac. I’m sure the bird probably has a complex about it now, but I found it hilarious.

Yes that’s real, and really part of its neck. It wouldn’t turn around, probably because I was laughing at it, but here’s the closest to a full frontal shot that I got.

HAHAHAHAHA!

Ok onto the next freaky animal I saw. This just a standard run o’ the mill alligator, I think, however someone let the air out of it. Its a deflator-gator.

Then there’s this gigantic hug you to death style python snake that is doing its best impression of a cat’s “when I fits I sits”. This squeezable rascal is probably over 10 feet long, and decided to curl up in its own water feature, or snuggle bowl as I would call it.

And last but not least, is a gator that I think has given up on life and decided to just quit. Namely because it is in a huge pen, around dozens of other gators, and yet it parked under a tree that’s clearly popular with birds, because they have all pooped on it. Like I think every bird in Florida stopped by the farm just to poop on the gator’s back. No other gators had any on them at all, but this one gator was practically ready to be moved to the albino gator pen it was so covered.

Seriously, that’s ALL bird poop, on JUST THAT ONE alligator. See all the gators next to it are clean, because you can just literally slide right into the water a few inches away. But nooooooooooooooooooooooooo, this gator just lays there letting birds tell it how they feel. Poor gator.