St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park

06/22/2026

Join Teddy and Grizzly as they celebrate World Rainforest Day 🦥

Teddy and Grizzly are two of our resident Hoffman’s two-toed sloths. This pair joined us in 2019 from Busch Gardens in Tampa. Grizzly, our female, is 41 years old, while Teddy, our male, is 51 years old. The St. Augustine Alligator Farm is also home to their daughter, Winnie. We work closely with organizations such as The Association of Zoos and Aquariums and The Sloth Conservation Foundation to ensure our sloths thrive and to support conservation efforts for sloths in the wild.

Known as the world’s slowest mammals, sloths are arboreal, living in the canopy layer of the Central and South American rainforests. Deforestation is the greatest threat to the rainforest. Illegal logging of hardwoods, slash-and-burn agriculture, and clear-cutting for agriculture and urban sprawl are major threats to tropical rainforests.

06/21/2026

Some dads want a tie. Others want to get up close and personal with a 1,250-pound saltwater crocodile’s lunch time. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and father figures who love a good adventure!

🐊 Want to experience a Maximo feeding like this? Check out our animal encounters at https://bit.ly/SAAFAnimalEncounters

06/19/2026

Lydia, our Reptile Keeper II, has just returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic, where she worked as part of a research team collecting data on American crocodiles. We’re so proud of her! And thank you to everyone who contributed to our May conservation fundraiser, which benefited this project.

Lydia and the team would head out at night, wading into the water and climbing over trees to hand-catch hatchlings and juveniles for evaluation. The young crocodiles were measured, had their stomach contents examined, were marked, and then released back into their natural habitat of Lago Enriquillo National Park. The team also took a boat out to Isla Cabritos to evaluate American crocodile nests. The team found very few nonviable eggs, indicating the nests had a high hatchling success rate! This is wonderful news for a species that is currently listed as Threatened by the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group.

06/17/2026

Happy World Crocodile Day!

We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate this amazing species than shining a light on Gomek’s legacy. Gomek was a saltwater crocodile who joined the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in 1989. He was 17 feet 9 inches long, weighed 1,896 pounds, and was estimated to be 70 years old when he passed in 1997 from heart disease. In this video, Jim, now our Curator of Reptiles, is feeding Gomek a nutria. Who here has memories of seeing Gomek?

There are 26 species of crocodilians, split into three families: true crocodiles (Crocodylidae), alligators and caimans (Alligatoridae), and gharial and false gharial (Gavialidae). The St. Augustine Alligator Farm is home to 24 species, many critically endangered. Not only do we protect and help educate the public about crocodilians, but we also support many groups that help protect them in the wild, including the Crocodile Research Coalition, Wildlife Conservation Society, Gharial Ecology Project, Mabuwaya Foundation, IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group, and Madagascar Fauna & Flora Group.

06/16/2026

It’s World Sea Turtle Day, and while we don’t have any sea turtles at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, we do have two staff members who are helping to protect them!

Jessie, Senior Bird & Mammal Keeper, and Hannah, Bird & Mammal Keeper, are part of the Mickler's Landing Turtle Patrol, a group of volunteers who patrol a stretch of beach in Ponte Vedra to monitor sea turtle nests, collect data for sea turtle research, and educate our community on what they can do to help protect sea turtles. They are looking for loggerhead, green, leatherback, and Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles. All activities are done under the supervision of Marine Turtle Permit 26-029.

📸 Jessie, Senior Bird & Mammal Keeper

06/15/2026

We’ve got a birthday in the house - on Friday, we celebrated Unit’s 10th birthday! She is the first Galapagos tortoise to be hatched at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, and was the first of six babies hatched in 2016. Unit is a Volcan Darwin giant tortoise, weighing in at 57 pounds and measuring 27.5 inches. The birthday girl loves neck scratches and all the attention she can get ❤️

🎥 Lauren, Collections Manager

06/13/2026

We’re incredibly proud to announce that Lauren, our Collections Manager, recently traveled to Agadir, Morocco, to attend the 28th Working Meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN ) Species Survival Commission (SSC) IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group. There, she presented a soon-to-be-published paper on the use of substrates during the artificial incubation of alligator eggs, speaking to crocodilian experts from around the world. As part of the conference, Lauren also visited Crocoparc, which houses over 300 Nile crocodiles, and traveled to the Sahara Desert to study local reptiles.

📸 Lauren, Collections Manager

06/12/2026

Looking to test your wild side on Crocodile Crossing? We’ve rounded up our top ten things to know before you attack our high-flying adventure courses.

1. Yes, we said adventure courses. Crocodile Crossing is more than a zip line. We’ve come up with two courses, the Sepik River and the Nile River, that each have a whole host of challenging aerial tasks, including zip lines, swinging bridges, ladders, tightropes, rope ladders, and more.

2. The Sepik River course is our shorter course, taking an average of 45 minutes to an hour to complete. It had 9 zip lines and 16 obstacles. It’s named after the Sepik River, which is one of the longest rivers in Papua New Guinea.

3. The Nile River course is our longer, more intense course, taking an average of 1 ½ to 2 hours. It has 16 zip lines and 27 obstacles, soaring over 30 feet in the air. This course is named after the famed Nile River, the longest river in the world.

4. We do not allow any loose items on the courses. They pose a danger to the animals that you’ll be adventuring above! This includes cell phones, cameras, loose articles, hats, headgear, headbands, scarves and chewing gum. We do have free lockers where you can store your things.

5. We take footwear very seriously! You must wear fully enclosed shoes with laces – no sandals, cowboy boots, bungee-tie shoes, stilettos, or Crocs. Believe it or not, shoes pose a HUGE danger to the animals living below the courses.

6. Adventure cameras, like GoPros, are allowed but only when worn with a chest harness.

7. Both of our adventure courses are self-guided. We use a continuous belay system, meaning you cannot unclip from the safety wires on the course. We do have a staff member who supervises each group on the ground.

8. Our courses are strenuous, so please make sure to be well rested, well hydrated, and well fueled. Drink plenty of water and eat a good meal before arriving.

9. You can’t say “I Survived Crocodile Crossing” if you’re not on time! Our courses run on a tight schedule, so please try to arrive at least 15 minutes before your scheduled time. This helps us get each group out on time.

10. Know Before You Go – watch our safety video on the Crocodile Crossing webpage to get a head start. It covers our continuous belay system, the dos and don’ts, and gives a sneak peek at some of our obstacles.

📸 select photos by Pips Ink

06/11/2026

Celebrate Men at Work coming to The Amp with an Australian-inspired St. Augustine adventure!

One winner will receive:
🎟️ (2) Tickets to Men At Work on July 17
🐊 (2) Tickets to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park
☕ $25 Gift Card to Kookaburra Coffee

TO ENTER:
• Follow The St. Augustine Amphitheatre, St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, and Kookaburra Coffee
• Like this post
• Tag the friend you'd bring in the comments

Giveaway ends June 16. Winner will be selected at random and contacted via DM from this account only.

06/09/2026

A huge thank you to David Benfield and Jordan Wilkerson with First Coast Living for coming out to see us!

Website: www.alligatorfarm.com