I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message. ~Steve Irwin
Do you know how to tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile? Do you know what areas of the world they live in? Did you know there are rare alligators like the Albino Alligators? Well, if you ever find yourself in Florida, I know of a great place you can visit where you can learn all of those things and more!
In St. Augustine, there is a place called the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park. There are tons of different animals to visit and learn about too, not just alligators.
During the recent quarantine/stay at home orders of 2020, Ava and I started watching the show Crikey! It’s the Irwins. We fell in love with the show and learned a lot about different Australian animals and how those at the Australia Zoo work to promote wildlife conservation. It also reminded me about my time watching the Crocodile Hunter (Steve Irwin) as a kid. I promised Ava when we were able to travel again that I would take her to a place where we could see the animals, those we were learning about from the show, in person. Even though I travel to St. Augustine each year, I have never been to the Alligator Farm so I thought it would be fun for the whole family to go together.
Below is a list of the top things we enjoyed from our visit:
Alligators and Crocodiles
The most obvious thing to say would be that we enjoyed all of the alligators. Yet, being a native Floridian, seeing alligators really isn’t out of the norm. I have had many experiences viewing alligators in their natural habitats throughout my lifetime. Our girls have seen alligators in the wild many times too. During my time as a student at the University of Florida, I would see alligators sunbathing on the side of the road as I walked to class. No big deal. However, at the Alligator Farm, I loved having the opportunity to see tons of different species, even some that are extremely rare, in one location. We were able to view and learn about different species that we, most likely, will never see in the wild. The rare Albino Alligator was especially cool to see. We also enjoyed watching the alligator feeding demonstration. They have trained the alligators to do some amazing things and, of course, are highly motivated by food. (You can see a brief clip of the feeding in our YouTube video toward the bottom of this post.)
The Wild Playground
When I asked Ava about her favorite things during our visit, no doubt the playground made the list. This playground has some unique equipment that the kids enjoyed climbing on. Check out the spider web below! It was nice to have an area to sit, eat, and just let the kids run around freely. They even have a separate play area where kids can pretend to be archaeologists and dig for fossils. Pretty neat!
Birds, Birds, & More Birds!
It might be the Alligator Farm but if you want to view or study birds, this is an amazing place to do just that! There are tons of different types of birds to watch. We even saw many with babies in their nests. One thing that was personally memorable: the stork. I had no idea a stork had such a huge sac of air!
Learning About Wildlife Conservation
What better way to teach children about wildlife conservation than to take them to a place where they do just that! Education, conservation, and research are their top priority. We learned all about different ways we can help wildlife and the environment during our visit. They have some suggestions listed HERE on their website that we can all easily implement in our everyday. They also talk about the history of the Alligator Farm and their work HERE.
To see more from our trip to the Alligator Farm, check out this video!
Alligator Crafts
Our girls love to do crafts and I always try to incorporate some before or after our trips. Here are resources for easy crafts you could do when learning about Alligators.
List of Alligator & Crocodile Crafts
If you would like to see more from our trip to St. Augustine, check out these posts below!
