WILDLIFE & CONSERVATION
Gatorama
Hendry County · South Florida & the Keys
A working alligator farm at Palmdale, open to the public since 1957, where the eggs hatch in front of visitors every August.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Cecil Clemons opened Gatorama at Palmdale in 1957, which makes it one of the oldest roadside attractions left in Florida. Allen and Patty Register bought it in 2006 and still run it. It is a working farm rather than a zoo: alligators and crocodiles are raised here for meat and skins, and exotic meat is sold at the park and online. The alligators were caught locally in the 1960s and the wild crocodiles came from Jamaica between 1967 and 1968, and there is an Orinoco crocodile exhibit as well. Native Florida animals share the property, including panthers, bobcats, raccoons, birds and snakes. Visitors walk a boardwalk over the pens. Children can hold baby alligators and pythons. Adults who fancy it can take the Fast Hands Challenge and hand-feed a full-grown alligator, and there is a daily feed show included with entry where keepers feed the animals from the front bridge. The event people plan trips around is the Gator Hatchling Festival in late August, when visitors hold the eggs while they hatch
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