Bird's Yellow House: "Giving Birth to Baby #3" or Being a Midwife to a Gator

I am two years into beginning my second decade as a Floridian. I have visited some of the "touristy" places that Florida has to offer and I must admit, the ones I enjoy the most are the old roadside attractions.

I have visited Weeki Watchee Springs and watched the Mermaid shows there. Loved it! (See previous blog entry).

Roughly two years ago I visited another old roadside attraction...Gatorama. This roadside attraction has been around for 52 years.

DSIL was in town for a visit. We wanted to do something fun and different while she was here. Gatorama sounded like the perfect thing.

Our visit to Gatorama would coincide with the roadside attraction's Hatching Festival. Excellent!

For $10 (plus the price of admission) you could reserve a spot, when the time came, to help hatch a baby alligator by hand. That had my name all over it.

We had time to tour Gatorama and watch the feedings before the Hatching Festival began. The 15 acre attraction is nestled in a natural Florida setting. There are palm trees and giant oak trees along the water's edge, the 1000 foot covered walkway and the wooden bridge.

Ambling down the walkway and bridge we saw many animals. We saw alligators (naturally), crocodiles, panthers, bobcats, raccoons, peacocks, ducks and geese.

From the bridge we watched as the alligators in the lake were being fed. A man would dangle raw chicken parts, by hand, over the water and huge alligators would almost leap completely out of the water to snap the chicken out of his hand.

It was nearing time to hatch my baby gator and I was beginning to get nervous. Before we could hatch our babies we were given a little tutorial, what to do, what not to do, what to be careful of (like the baby gator's yolk sack that would still be attached to the baby gator, that was what made me most nervous).

I began to doubt my gator "birthing" ability. Then I thought to myself, I've given birth to two babies (without the aid of epidurals), I can do this...I was still nervous...it was that yolk sack that worried me.

Those of us who paid to participate in the Hatching Festival were asked to approach a kiddie swimming pool filled with peat moss. We were given disposable gloves to wear and once they were donned, we were handed an egg. Que even more nerves.

The egg was a little larger than a chicken's egg and slightly oblong. The shell of the egg felt a little soft and leathery. I could feel the baby gator move inside the egg and hear it make little grunting noises. Baby alligators have an egg tooth on the end of their snouts and they use it to help tear out of the shell. I could see a tiny hole in the egg that was handed to me and my job was to gently tear away some of the shell to make the hole larger so that the baby alligator could emerge. I have nerves with nerves of their own by now. I am edgier hatching my baby gator than I ever was giving birth to my two children.

I start to make the hole larger and I can see the tip of the baby alligator's nose. I keep making the hole larger, slowly, gently. I see a little blood on the shell....

Oh my God, I've killed my baby gator! I was careless and ruptured the yolk sack for sure. I alert the Gatorama people.

"No, Ma'am that's normal, you're doing fine."

I breathe a little easier, but still worry about watching out for the yolk sack.

A few more little tears of the shell and my baby gator slides out of it's shell, into my hand (yolk sack in tact) and into the world.

She was about 8 inches long.

I say "she" because the owner of Gatorama said this clutch of eggs more than likely produced females due to the temperature of the eggs while they were incubating.

A proud new "Hornback" (the name given one who has hatched an alligator).

After the newborn photo op, I said my goodbyes and placed my hatchling in the moss-filled kiddie pool along with the other hatchlings.

Those of us who participated in the hatching were given a scoot and alligator teeth to take home with us. A scoot is a bony plate on an alligator's back.