Animal Encounters

It's time to take a break from all the plant science for an exciting animal encounter. Rather, many animal encounters! As my dear friend and I drove across the southern United States on Interstate 10, we had to stop at a few roadside attractions. The first non-scheduled stop was in western Louisiana, where a billboard advertised "Pet baby alligators!"

It turned out to be a park alongside the highway. This is Bubba:

They had another alligator, Hampton, who was found by the dumpster at the Hampton Inn in town. They also had a snapping turtle and 2 adult (!) alligators, who were supposedly hibernating but had their eyes open. I learned that adult alligators only eat from June through August, and the babies are born in September.

Our next animal encounters were more commercial, but not any less exciting. In fact, there was a lot of excitement because we visited an ostrich ranch... ostriches are scary! They peck and follow people along the fence, making it difficult to get close enough to feed them.

The ranch also white-tailed deer, goats, mini donkeys, and rainbow lorikeets. All of these animals were exciting to feed. The deer were the most gentle and the lorikeets landed on my head and ALMOST made off with my sunglasses! Photos to come...