Listen to the Ship Captain and Stay in Your Seat

This is a female alligator in a swamp outside of New Orleans.  I was just there this past week on business and was reminded of this pic, which I took last summer when my wife and I toured the Honey Creek Swamp.  You’ll find this pic at www.douggraybealphotography.com in my gallery under animal pics.  Even though this turned out to be a cool picture of her snout, it could have turned out very different.

About ten of us got in the aluminum-hulled boat with a guide to check out wildlife in the swamp.  The guide was amazing.  He was born, grew up and now lives in this very swamp.  So much I could say about it and probably will in future blogs, but for now, I’ll just say that the swamp is a very beautiful and peaceful place.  Much different than the images we have with Shrek and his ogre friends calling it home.  No, it doesn’t smell like swamp gas.  In fact, it is quite clean.

It is, however, full of alligators.  We must have seen 20 or more of them.  The guide and captain of our boat told everyone to stay in their seats.  These are wild alligators and will be quite happy to have you for a meal.  As he walked to the opposite side of the boat that I was on, she came up to our side, just a few feet away from us.  I leaned over and snapped this picture, just as she was opening her mouth.  No big deal, right?  Another lady saw me do that so as the alligator made her way to the other side of the boat, she did the same thing.  The captain saw her (his view was blocked when I did it and didn’t see me lean over) and he yelled and embarrassed her and threatened to take her back to the dock.  Later, he showed us why. 

He put a hot dog on the end of a stick and held it at rooftop level of the boat, about 6 – 8 feet off the surface of the water.  This alligator jump out of the water, slammed up against the boat and took the hot dog so fast that we really didn’t even see her.  Her rock hard body hit us so hard that the entire boat shook violently back and forth.  Alligators are nearly all bone, amazing strength and lightning speed.  And they are usually hungry. 

I don’t know if she was opening her snout with some thoughts about taking one of my arms for lunch but I do see it was quite possible.  As a photographer, I’m glad I got this pic.  As a tourist, in the future, I’ll always listen to my ship captain.