Animal Diaries Archive

Boy they have grown!

30 December 2005

It seems like just yesterday that our juvenile alligators were born, and now they are about to turn four years old. They started out life as these tiny little 17cm long alligators and over the past four years have each grown to be over one metre long and over six kilograms in weight. They are now at the size where in the wild they would be taking on turtles, larger fish and small mammals, so all the boys have to stay on their toes.

They have progressed from just doing photo session and love their new role of interacting with the public. We allow guests to get a little more up-close and personal and pat these guys, to show how amazing they truly are. Even though they are soon to be four years old, they still have plenty of growing to do yet if they are to be as big as their dad Barney, our largest alligator at about 11 feet long. Hopefully they will all grow even bigger than their dad and make for very impressive viewing when they are the stars of our alligator swampland in the future.