Gatorland is a 110-acre (45 ha) theme park and wildlife preserve in Florida, located along South Orange Blossom Trail south of Orlando. It was founded 73 years ago by Owen Godwin on former cattle land in 1949, and is privately owned by his family.
Billed as the “Alligator Capital of the World,” Gatorland features thousands of alligators (including rare leucistic alligators) and crocodiles, and many other animals. Attractions in the park include a breeding marsh with a boardwalk and observation tower, zip lines, an off-road swamp vehicle tour, a ridable miniature railroad, alligator feeding shows, alligator wrestling shows, an aviary, a petting zoo, and educational programs. The breeding marsh area of the park was used in the filming of the 1984 movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
The park is known for buying and rescuing nuisance alligators from trappers that would otherwise be killed for their meat and skin. Gatorland also manages the live alligator display at the Gaylord Palms resort in Kissimmee.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Gatorland“, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.