by Gretchen F. Coyle

“Don’t worry ma’am, gators don’t feed in the winter months; they are pretty dormant,” alligator farmer Mark Green tells me. Around the dike where I’m standing are ponds filled with three to five thousand gators, all beady eyes, humped bony backs, and notched tails.

Instead of cattle, horses, or fields of watermelons, part of Green Farm breeds and harvests alligators. Acres are fenced for the gators with heavy duty wire supported by thick pipe posts. Inside, cypress roots extend into blue-green water thirty feet deep, while scum covers the stagnant water that rises six feet during the rainy season.

As I walk the fenced-in alligator farm, located in the community of Muse north of La Belle, Green informs me that breeding takes place in the late spring. “Eggs are collected in the summer and put in a hatchery,” he says. “A temperature of about eighty-eight degrees inside is ideal for producing both males and females.”

Safely (according to my point of view) past the fenced-in breeding area, we enter a large incubation facility, complete with a grow-out house that looks like a long chicken coop. “I hope to harvest three thousand alligators this year,” says Green, some of which will be released into the wild and some of which will be used for consumption. Gators in the latter group will be taken to the farm’s slaughterhouse. Cleaner than the average kitchen, it houses two gigantic walk-in freezers along with knives and utensils sharpened for the upcoming season.

The first alligator farm in Florida was established in 1891. Hunting had preceded it by decades, with sportsmen and traders going after the reptiles in the Everglades. But by the 1960s, alligators were becoming extinct and were placed on Florida’s List of Endangered Species. The rapid development of the Sunshine State also played a part, turning much of the gators’ former dwelling places into roads, neighborhoods, and shopping centers.

Alligator farming has helped turn this all around. The state of Florida first permitted commercial alligator farming in 1985, and since then public and private entities have been breeding the animal for commercial purposes (like gator meat and hides or to draw tourists) or for preservation efforts. Breeding farms have put thousands of gators back into their natural habitat in places like the Florida Everglades, and as a result, the population of alligators in the wild has grown significantly.

Owner of Gatorama alligator and crocodile park in Palmdale, Allen Register wears many hats within the state’s alligator industry. He’s chairman of the Florida Alligator Marketing and Education Advisory Committee, part of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; a board member of the Florida Aquaculture Association; and a member of Florida’s Aquaculture Review Council. In addition, Register is both the alligator egg collection coordinator and alligator hatchling collection coordinator for the state.

“Alligator farming is one of several alligator programs that are regulated by the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission,” he says. “[It] helps create and sustain a monetary value for the hides, meat, and other by-products, which in turn gives more value to wetlands and other alligator habitat that is normally looked at to be of little or no use.

“Killing alligators off would or could devastate the whole ecosystem in which they reside,” he continues. “They create mini-ecosystems within a larger one, especially during times of drought by creating water holes that allow other animals to survive. If the alligators were gone, many other species would go with them.”

Today’s economy is hard on alligator farmers, who find that “there are only four or five major buyers in the world, overseas, mainly in Europe,” says Register. With our dollar weak against the euro, it could be assumed that the alligator industry is prospering. However, most products are shipped back to the United States to be sold. “Tanners created a backlog of hides during the three years prior to 2008, then lost sales because of the recession,” says Register. “Many farmers have a million dollars or more of infrastructure and inventory on their farms.”

Residents and visitors to Florida have several opportunities to see one of these farms in action at popular tourist attractions throughout the state. Gatorama claims to have the “largest collection of alligators and crocodiles anywhere.” It’s run by Register and his wife, Patty, a sixth-generation Florida Cracker family. Segments for the Animal Planet and Food Network have been filmed at this Old Florida spot west of Lake Okeechobee. It sells only farm-raised alligator meat and was the first alligator farm to ship worldwide.

Open every day except for Christmas, Everglades Alligator Farm in Florida City is a working alligator farm that stresses hands-on education with shows and a nature trail dotted with exhibits. Everyone gets to hold a gator at this attraction located adjacent to the Everglades National Park.

Wooten’s Everglades Adventures in Ochopee offers airboat and swamp buggy rides along with an alligator park and animal exhibit. Home to more than two hundred alligators, it also includes one of the largest native snake exhibits in Southwest Florida.

Just west of Titusville is Jungle Adventures Nature Park & Zoo. A day can be spent here feeding black bears through a special chute, watching an African tortoise chug along, and observing a replica Spanish fort or Indian village. It’s also home to Swampy, a two-hundred-foot-long faux gator once used as a house. Today, it gets the distinction of being the world’s largest alligator.

Freelance writer Gretchen F. Coyle is a longtime contributor to Times of the Islands, RSW Living, Bonita Living, and Gulf & Main