Alligators and Other Critters – Wakulla Springs State Park Jungle Boat Tour [April 12, 2023]

 

Yup, they have lots of alligators in Florida, and tourists love looking at them!  Wakulla Springs is a beautiful State Park focused on the largest, deepest, and most prolific Spring in Florida.  Alligators live in the Wakulla River that is formed by the Spring.  Back in the day, they used to provide glass bottom boat tours so you could see the opening of the Spring (the equivalent of 11 stories below), but the water is no longer as crystal clear as it once was so the boat tours nowadays focus on the animals that live along the Spring and River.

 

Our boat leaving the dock and our Ranger guide

Turtles on a log

The Jungle Boat Tour leaves every hour for a 45-minute tour.  Our guide was a folksy park ranger who narrated what we were seeing along the way.  We saw a lot of alligators and baby alligators, and logs lined with turtles.

Submerged Manatee

Common Gallinule or Moor Hen

We also saw three manatee (one was a baby) submerged underwater, and a bunch of Common Gallinules, also known as Moor Hens, with bright red faces.  A big treat for us were the Yellow-Crowned Night Herons (one was sitting on a nest).  These were a first for us and they are beautiful.  Sadly, no photos of these gorgeous birds to share. 

Male Anhinga (black neck and head)

 

Female Anhinga (brown neck and head)

We saw Anhinga’s nesting, fishing, and drying their wings.  We learned to tell the difference between the males (black neck and heads) and females (brown neck and heads).  They hunt by spearing fish with their pointy beaks.

 

Juvenile Ibis

In the old days, before hurricane prediction science, you could tell a hurricane was about to hit because the Ibis’ were the last birds to leave.  Their return meant that the hurricane was over, they were the first to return.  Not much of an early warning system for boarding up your windows, but a cool reminder about the interrelatedness of nature.  The Ibis’ we saw were juveniles losing their protective dark coloring and becoming white.

 

The River

Archeologists believe that they have found the remnants of a prosperous Apalachee Indian city along the banks of the Spring, as well as Paleoindian tools near the Wakulla Springs Lodge itself.  On the boat tour, you can see a field along the side of the River believed to be the location of the city with flags marking where they have found artifacts.

Spider Lilly's along the bank of the River

 

The Park was used to film scenes in several movies including Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (with an alligator wrestling scene – don’t think they used local alligators…), Creature from the Black Lagoon, Airport 77 and Joe Panther. 

 

Russ swimming in the Spring

After the boat tour, We had a picnic lunch overlooking the beautiful spring, and then Russ took a swim in the swimming area over the spring.  We asked our guide how they kept the alligators out of the swimming area, he said that they started training the ‘gators from an early age.  Didn’t inspire confidence…

 

We rode our bikes through the state park last year – here is the link to that blog post. The boat tours are very popular,  you have to make a reservation at least a day in advance. 

 Here is a video of the boat passing a "smiling" alligator.