In this natural habitat of lakes and vegetation, you'll see gators up-close while standing on a wooden walkway and protected observation deck. You will almost be able to feel their breath as they glide right up to the walkway! You will thrill to a death-defying gator show as our daring tour guides feed these "dinosaurs" of the swamp in an amazing encounter with the top predator of this habitat.

Our alligator breeding area, swarming with live gators, is designed for the health of the animals and the restoration of the swamp. During early spring you will see the nesting areas of these mature American alligators - the bull gators up to 14.5 feet long - and hear the bellowing of these primeval dragons as they claim their breeding territories.

Mother alligators guard their nests from April to September of each year. Once their eggs hatch, we remove the baby alligators, feed and protect them until they are large enough to be released into the wild. You may see many of these small gators in the Alligator Snapping Turtle Pond.

The alligator ecohabitat is part of our overall restoration plan for the basin. Bayou Manchac's early settlers mistakenly gave Alligator Bayou the name "Crocodile Bayou" because the waters were so filled with these reptiles, they claimed, that you could walk across their backs from one bank to another.

Conservationists Frank Bonifay and Jim Ragland, the founders of Alligator Bayou, are replenishing the swamp with gators from the ecohabitat to restore their numbers and balance the swamp's ecology. Frank and Jim are also working with nuisance hunters to relocate alligators that would have been killed.