Tourists Can Only Film as Guide Jumps in Swamp, Meets Gator Face-to-Face
Gators are not usually playful animals. They don’t fit in the same category as, say, dogs or cats or even llamas. They kill things. And by “things,” that includes people.
So, if you’re going to get in the water and play with an alligator — and not just some alligator in a zoo exhibit, but a random, wild alligator in the swamps of Louisiana — that takes guts. It’s also a very dangerous way to end up going viral.
And make no mistake — this guide definitely deserved plenty of clicks, even if I’m not quite sure the cost of admission was worth it.
In a video from 2017 that’s been viewed over 1.1 million times, a guide can be seen swimming with a gator as tourists watch from a boat.
Well, at first it’s just swimming. Pretty soon, he’s scratching the thing under its neck as if it were a dog. “Who’s a good little reptilian predator? Who can kill people who get too close? You can! Yes, you can!”
The people on the boat, meanwhile, seem to believe they’re watching the prelude to a Darwin Award. “What if he bites you?” one can be heard saying.
Then the alligator comes up to the boat, something that seems to thrill the tourists — although one can sense plenty of nerves.
The guide resumes playing with the gator as if it were a dog — and in all fairness, the gator seems ridiculously happy about the whole affair.
“Everybody does that, or just you?” one of the passengers can be heard asking from the boat.
“Me and my cousin,” the guide responds.
The guide even fed the gator by spitting some food in its mouth — something that had to take a heck of a lot of courage, or a heck of a lot of something.
In fact, this wasn’t something limited to this one tour. In 2014, the The Associated Press reported that “(a)uthorities have ordered swamp boat tour operators in the South Louisiana community of Jefferson Parish to stop feeding alligators after video of a tour guide doing so went viral.”
Nevertheless, this guide was more than willing to feed the gator, using the food to get some tricks out of it as if the reptile were a dog.
Apparently, he didn’t realize that he was all food to the alligator, too.
We’ll be clear: Don’t try this at home. However, it’s kind of amazing to live in a country where you have the freedom to try unusual ways of entertaining tourists and being one with nature. (Unless you’re in Jefferson Parish, of course.)
He wasn’t hurting the alligators and the only person in danger was himself. If you feel bad egging him on, well, hey — this is America. He’s apparently very good at this, and it certainly made you and me watch. At the end of the day, there’s something to be said for that.
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