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Contents: Photo Gallery; Deformed Gator Head Collection, Louisiana Gator Processing Virtual Tour, Central Florida Gators Virtual tour
| ROGUE'S
GALLERY
OF WEIRD & DEFORMED ALLIGATORS
WELL, IT'S HAPPENED AGAIN...GLENN HAS DECIDED TO OFFER YET ANOTHER PERSONAL COLLECTION FOR SALE (he tells me he has an eye on something in the dinosaur field to replace his interest)... so we present the Deformed Gator Head Collection (350+ heads) Value of the collection (though priceless) is $35,000, if we were to sell these individually at retail Offering it now at $28,000 including shipping & insurance |
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Here finally is part of our Deformed Gator Head Collection - this is 300 we could fit on the wall. We have more we had to store.This collection alone could be a traveling museum. Here are some of the most interesting...the first two are not deformed, just interesting... |
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First, here's Hector. To find the length of a gator, you measure from the middle of the eye to the tip of the nose. Every inch equals one foot and one year- Hector's measurement is 16"...so you know what that means! He's our biggest and oldest specimen in the store! Chomp chomp! |
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What's wrong with this picture? Is that why we call him Captain Hook? |
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This is Goofy Gator, a deformed gator skull from the Louisiana Bayous. A result of oil contamination caused this head deformity - yet he survived to 9 years old! Bet he was a sloppy eater! |
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Our famous Wally Gator, the three-eyed alligator. Also a result of oil pollution, you see he's a Siamese twin - there's a third eye, as well as an extra upper jaw area. He was determined to have two brains as well. Our most unusual gator! |
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Here's another group of deformed heads - the bottom jaw split! A shortened bottom jaw, "scissors" jaws, and the fourth has the upper teeth on the right jaw missing entirely. A lesson in survival, isn't it? * I'll be adding more close ups of the heads as time permits! |
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The middle top gator foot is normal - four toes (3 with nails, one without). But look what happened to the other feet! Also from oil pollution in Louisiana. Teaches us a valuable lesson about the environment, doesn't it? What happens to them could happen to us! |
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Hey lady, there's a gator on your purse...yup, the whole little gator sewn onto her purse, as you can see from the front and back views. Donated by one of our New York customers years ago, it's still an unusual item giving us a chuckle. Not the height of fashion now, however. Not for sale. |
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SWAMPY THE GIANT - THE LARGEST GATOR EVER BUILT (200 feet, 1 inch), can be found in Christmas, Florida. Here are some other views of our visit there in 2007:
Getting ready to munch on cars for lunch?
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The SECOND LARGEST GATOR built (126 feet long), is found at the GATOR MOTEL in Kissimmee Florida. Gee Florida grows big gators don't they? |
| Central Florida
Gators and oddities
We made a trip to one of our gator sources that is a licensed gator hunter and nuisance gator man. He usually has about 30 gators backlog to catch from complaints in his county, 20,000 gators are caught and killed every year to keep the numbers down.
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| (Below) Curiosities in Greg's
den: a replica Indian Gharial crocodile (Gavialis Gangeticus)
skull is very cool, note the single nostril
Below is an EXTREMELY large 12' 8" gator mount, you don't realize how WIDE the gator becomes when you add considerably to the average LENGTH of gator. Also note the flat gator skin on the wall that is about 12 feet long, and the huge gator head Glenn is standing behind.
Below is a set of 3 fifty-five gallon drums with gator skulls in water (changed once in a year) that literally rots the meat off the skulls. I think we got closer to the gator operation than we really intended with this one!
Below is a true "Monster Garage" of taxidermy HUGE gator heads ready to sell
These large gators are in a walk-in cooler (38 degrees F.) that makes them hibernate until Greg is ready to process them. The other two pictures are of the freezer with heads that have been frozen from another time, awaiting taxidermy.
Below is a twisted gator head deformity shown top and bottom
Below is another gator jaw/tooth deformity where the teeth are OUTSIDE the jaw which is not usual for alligators
Also in Greg's den are carvings of gators, feathers, and knife handles (snake design) from gator jaw bones, neat stuff-keep in mind the gator jawbone is only two-dimensional
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| On
a visit to one of our gator sources in Florida, we discovered some
wonderfully unusual items Dale and his wife make. Photo of Dale and
Kathy, a sweeter couple you could not find:
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Their
gator skute mats are weird and they WORK to scrape the mud & sand from
your shoes!
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Since
they collect all things gator, this piece of tree bark was ideal for their
collection! |
As
well as this remote controlled gator - note even the REMOTE is a gator:
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A
gator dragon - Dale loves combining body parts to make fantasy
critters!
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| A
gator skin belt and buckle (using the skutes):
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Gator
foot handle knife
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a
Gator skin axe sheath
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A
superior quality gator purse
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| Hand
made bone handle knives
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A horn knife with gator skute end |
You can view the other gator products they make (including skins, mounts, and gator tongue items) on Gators pages 3 and 4 | |
| GATOR
PROCESSING
LEST YOU THINK PROCESSING GATORS IS AN EASY BUSINESS, here is one of our sources in Louisiana and his property. The drying room that can hold thousands of heads for drying at once, it takes several days to process:
Here are some the heads that have come from the drying room, ready to go to this building to be ground smooth on the back, etc.:
The bins of heads ready for spraying, note the fan & outdoor tables to spray & dry the clear coating on the gator heads, he used to do it indoors (fourth photo):
Semi trailer containers for finished work & general storage in the background, and other processing tables for prepping alligator feet:
T An ingenious device created to size gator teeth:
An example of the gator teeth we choose from:
Another ingenious invention to measure necklace leathers from the roll and cut quantities the same length:
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| A
14' gator mount we found at a new Visitor's Center in Aynor SC called Wes
T. Gator, from Polk County, Florida:
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