A Day at the St Augustine Alligator Farm

By Jennifer On June 2, 2012 · 205 Comments · In Attractions

Next time you are in St Augustine, don’t miss one of the oldest city’s most-visited attractions – The St Augustine Alligator Farm! This attraction is often misinterpreted because of its name. It is not just a simple alligator “farm”, this is a zoological park with 100 years of history in the making! Starting back in 1893 as a small reptile exhibition, the park functions today as a modern zoo serving the public and the scientific community with educational shows and exhibits, important research, and worldwide conservation efforts. With over 12 main exhibits, the park has everything from a huge exhibit of alligators and crocodiles to Komodo Dragons and an extensive collection of wild birds.

One of mine and everyone’s favorite exhibits is Maximo. This is the name of the park’s largest animal. The famous 15 foot 3 inch, 1,250-pound Maximo saltwater crocodile, or “Saltie” as his species is called in Australia, hatched from an egg collected by aborigines along an Australian river bank in 1971 making him over 40 years old. He grew to his adult size at the Cairn’s Crocodile Farm. If you have a hard time seeing Maximo above the water, the underwater viewing window gives you the chance to see this massive animal up-close.

Another favorite exhibit is the Alligator Swamp. Not only can you see and feed mass amounts of alligators here, this is the home of the park’s Natural Bird Rookery. Native herons, egrets, ibis, spoonbills and wood storks seek the security of the Alligator Swamp to roost and raise their young. With hundreds of alligators swimming beneath the oak branches, the birds know their young are safe here from tree-climbing predators. Wooden walkways allow for incredibly intimate views of Florida’s magnificent wading birds on their nests. The site of many amazing photo ops, Alligator Swamp gives you the feeling of real wildlife adventure. This time of year is best to visit this area since you are able to view the most nesting activity with the birds in full breeding plumage from April to July.

I won’t forget to mention the Alligator Farm’s newest exhibit – Crocodile Crossing. Although I have not had the experience yet myself, I have heard this is amazing fun! The Alligator Farm’s website describes it as “Exploring New Heights” some may think of it as ”Exploring New Frights” as you are literally zipping across a park filled with gators.. yikes! Not only is it a zipline, but a full-fledged obsacle course with more than 50 different obstacles available.
Another exciting part of the day for the visitors is alligator feeding time! This is done two times a day at 12:00 noon and 3:00 pm and is quite interesting to watch. (See the video below taken today). This staff member was not only trained well for feeding time but was also excellent at providing the guests with the history of the park and with some little-known alligator facts.