Live Gator Boys Alligator Shows
Our alligator shows are performed by the Gator Boys Alligator Rescue team in our alligator pit with stadium-style seating and a mechanical louvered covered roof that provides maximum shade and coverage from the powerful South Florida sunshine. Every Everglades airboat tour ticket purchase includes access to our 20-minute alligator show, where you’ll watch our expert alligator handlers perform tricks and stunts, all while teaching you all about the American alligator!
Featured on Animal Planet
Gator Boys, a team of experienced wranglers working out of their home base in our Everglades Holiday Park, were first featured on Animal Planet in 2012. The prominent figures being Paul Bedard, Jimmy Riffle, and Chris Gillette, among others, are shown wrestling alligators out of places those animals shouldn’t be. Their final episode aired in February of 2015 and showed the Gator Boys advocating for and pressing on policy reform for safe habitation of alligators.
Exhilarating Performances
The show includes many jaw-dropping, up close and personal looks at the behavior and mannerisms of American alligators. One of the tricks called the “face off” includes a Gator Boy holding the gator’s mouth shut with his chin!
A Unique Wildlife Experience
The most exceptional thing about these shows is that they aren’t just for entertainment purposes. Every show is interwoven with education so that the viewers better understand alligators, how to protect their environment, and how to act when seeing an alligator in the wild.
Preserving the Everglades
The Everglades ecosystem is subtropical wetlands spanning two million acres over central and south Florida. During the wet season, late May through June, Lake Okeechobee overflows into a shallow, slow-moving river affectionately named the “River of Grass” because of how dominated it is by sawgrass marsh. The water flows southward through many diverse habitats until it reaches Everglades National Park and then Florida Bay.
Originally, the Greater Everglades ecosystem was made up of a large diversity of habitats all connected by bodies of water and wetlands. However, since the 1800s, humans have been changing the Everglades landscape, unintentionally as well as intentionally. Water diversions and flood control structures, while important for human settlements, restrict the flow of water across what is a sensitive landscape. Once you factor in agricultural and urban developments as well, it’s not hard to see how the Everglades have decreased in size, which affects the quality of the included habitats.
By providing the Gator Sanctuary for the talented and conservation-conscious Gator Boys, we hope to showcase just how much positive influence this rescue team has by educating and encouraging viewers to contribute to the ongoing preservation of the Everglades ecosystem.
The Ultimate Alligator Experience
Encountering alligators in the wild can be scary and intimidating, especially as a visitor to Florida. These shows are the perfect way to get educated about alligators and have an immersive experience that will create lifelong memories.
The Gator Boys are very careful. Performers are trained for quite a while before ever being allowed to do a solo show, and there are always people on standby in case something goes wrong. No performer is ever left unattended. The viewers have protective barriers between them and the alligators as well as raised walls so that there’s no chance of the alligators finding their way into the crowd.
When you visit, we want you to feel comfortable and secure. The shows are intense, heart-pounding, and exhilarating, but every viewer is safe, and the performers are well-cared for.
