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Robert C. Jadin

Alligator Wrestling

     I don't really like being labeled as a person who alligator wrestles but I have done it.  Mostly I like to educate while putting the least amount of stress on an animal as possible.  But tourists don't want to just here about the animal, they want to see what it can do, so in order to get my message across and gain personal experience with crocodilians I had to do things I disagree with.  

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My aunt showing me how to wrestle alligators me barely 17
 
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me at almost 20    

      I believe that alligator wrestling should be banned because of the stress it puts on the alligator, however if people don't see and learn about them, they won't care enough about them to conserve them. So I tried to put as little stress as I can while still doing my job and educating people about how dangerous they aren't (unless you are in a cage with them).  All but one of these images were taken in the winter of 2001.  For three months during the summer of 2002 I lived in the Everglades while doing this on the weekdays but didn't get any new pictures.  The alligator in the first picture was called "RipJaw". The second alligator in this picture is Elizabeth who is now a mother alligator at a breeding pond used to produce little alligators and she is alive and healthy.  The alligator used this summer is Albert (not pictured) who will soon be rotated from alligator wrestling with another alligator.  Albert will go back into a natural habitat pond with many other alligators because if you handle an alligator for too long they will end up dying in a relatively short time since it is very stressful on them.  

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Alligator Wrestling 
Carl (another alligator wrestler) This is a technique used by the Seminole Indians while they were alligator hunting out on their own.  They would usually have a rope around their waist and once they were on top of the 5 foot or so alligator (not normally 7 and half to 8 foot like the one here) they would place their chin under the alligator's lower jaw so they could free their hands and tie the alligator's mouth shut.  Then they would bring the alligator back to their dug out canoe and take it to their families.  

Robert Jadin's Herpetology Journal

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