WEBVTT - The Secret Life of Alligators! 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:07.400 Really now, really, really. 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:11.640 Now, really Hello and welcome to Really Know Really with 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:14.640 Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden, who invite you to subscribe 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.280 and allow us to be your emotional support podcast. 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:17.760 Really. 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.000 Speaking of emotional. 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.279 Support, have you heard about Wally, the five foot long, 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.440 sixty pound emotional support alligator. Wally's owner sleeps with him, 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.600 walks him on a leash, and even hosts children's pool 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:35.160 parties featuring the allegedly docile reptile. Really, with their inhuman eyes, 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:39.120 prehistoric looks, razor sharp teeth, and propensity to eat small 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.519 dogs and occasionally their full sized owners. Most of us 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.600 have concluded that alligators are mindless, aggressive killing machines, but 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:48.560 today's guest says we're wrong. 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:49.720 Really. 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.519 Recent studies indicate that reptiles may have the capacity to 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:57.600 feel emotions such as anxiety and even pleasure, and today's guests, 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.840 Paul Bedard, one of the most knowledgeable people on the 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.399 planet when it comes to understanding the psyche of wild alligators, 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.759 explains to the guys how humans can train and interact 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:13.240 with alligators in a safe and even playful way. Really, no, really, now, 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.040 now here's two guys who wouldn't turn down emotional support, 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.880 even if it did come from a mindless killing machine. 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:23.880 Jason and Peter, here we go. Or you're exciting left, 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.360 that's what's gonna be. This is what's gonna be one. 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:27.880 I'm excited. I'm really excited. 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:29.959 This is this is one that you got excited about 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.760 that you stumbled on, well, okay, on to this topic. 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.640 So and you you really this this this kind of 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:39.200 took a deep bite on you, didn't it. 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:43.320 I went down. I went down an alligator hall. So 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.600 let me say what happened. I see a story that's 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:47.800 been on a lot of channels, a lot of places, 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.640 I think CBS Sunday Morning about Wally, this emotional support alligator. 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:56.600 And in Pennsylvania, this gentleman who's rescued reptiles and loves reptiles, 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.480 rescued Wally, who I think is now like six pounds 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:02.840 and five feet long and carries them like a baby, 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.000 walks him on a leash, sleeps next to them in 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.480 the bed. And I'm looking going and and while he 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.880 is his emotional support, legally his emotional support, alligator puts 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:13.639 his hand in his mouth, shows he will never bite, 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:14.200 never bite. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.120 Right to see him scratching the alligator's tongue right, which 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:20.440 would make any other alligator snap. 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:22.720 You would bite If I scratch your tongue right now, 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.760 you'd bite. How do you not bite? So he's really 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.359 and and but maybe I get alligators wrong because they're 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:34.640 prehistoric looking. It's not a cute animal they are. He's 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.560 just looking. They've been around since. But then because I'm 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:42.680 researching this, I get pushed out this guy Paul Medard, 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.880 who works at a place in Florida that's a reptile 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:47.639 that does a reptile show. He was also on a 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:51.600 show called Gator Boys. And he's there with alligators that 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:55.040 decide to will win a bago on his chest, kissing them, 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.120 carrying them, plugging them around, lying down with him, and 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.040 they're not biting. And I'm looking at this going he 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:03.760 So I want to talk to because we can ask 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:05.480 him if the others alligator are going to buy because 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.520 he's around alligators all the time. This is his wife. 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.000 So we got paulmod Ard on with us, who catches 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.400 and rescues alligators that have been deemed a threat to people, pets, 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.960 are livestock. He was in Gator Boys and he runs 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.200 the Gator Boys Alligator Rescue Sanctuary, which is in the 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.960 Everglades Holiday Park. And I became obsessed with you, Paul, 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.120 because it started out with the story of Wally, the 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:30.000 emotional support alligator. I'm watching the guy with that in Pennsylvania, 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.360 my home state, whatever, and I'm watching he's doing stuff 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:33.720 with the gator, and I'm going, this thing is going 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:35.240 to want of this day. It's going to end badly. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:37.520 It's sleeping with the gator. He's doing a whole bit, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.040 and then he's taking it into a pool and it's 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:43.240 swimming with kids, and I'm going, oh my gosh. And 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.640 then it pushes out because I'm doing research you and 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:48.720 you're sitting there with Casper, who's the size of a 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:51.280 Winner bag, and he's got his head on your lap. 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.000 And I've now watched i think every video you have ever. 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:58.400 I'm so obsessed with you that it's amazing, and I 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.320 the takeaway sort of jumping to the end, but I 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.640 think it's important how misunderstood I was as far as 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.760 gats and how they react and what they are. So 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.920 thank you for coming on number one. But it's amazing 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:15.680 what you do. So tell us a little about I 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:17.360 knew Gator Boys is on for a couple of years. 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:18.679 Will you rescue these things? 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.960 I think it's six seasons on animal plans. 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.479 Oh wow. So how did you get involved with reptiles 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:27.960 and specifically gators that you decided this is what you 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:28.400 want to do. 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.320 It just happened. It wasn't like I mean, I always 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.320 loved alligators and sharks and stuff, but I grew up 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.360 in New England and then when I was out of college, 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.400 I was racing triathlons, like pretty seriously. So I would 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:42.880 just couchsurf up and down the East Coast and take 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.080 any job at any random bike shop or a zoo 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:46.600 that was dumb enough to hire me because I was 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.640 leaving in three months when the weather changed, and I 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.560 started working at a small zoo in Hollywood on the 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:58.000 Native Seminole reservation, and I just asked one day where 0:04:58.000 --> 0:04:59.400 do you get your gators from? And they were like, oh, 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.040 we just go grab out of the swamp because we're 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.359 on seminal property, the big Cypress. And I said, well, 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:05.920 I should buy him off the trappers they're going to 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:08.120 kill him. They're like, you want to wats three hundred 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:09.760 bucks in the gator? Go for it, we get them 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.400 for free, so almost approve a point. I went and 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.640 bought an alligator, and then the trapper eventually said, hey, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.960 if you want to save alligators, mother Teresa, but I'm 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.360 too busy. When I'm too busy, you can feel free 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.600 to catch the gators that i'm You have too many 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.240 to catch, and whatever you catch is yours. And then 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:27.640 my life pretty much ended. 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.640 So how much experience? So when you're going to catch gators, 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.600 your young guy, how much expertise did you have on 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.200 their behaviors so that you wouldn't get eaten or killed? 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.360 Well, I was really lucky as a young man. There's 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.680 a guy named Many Quig that a lot of this 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.440 people these days don't recognize. He's the best animal guy 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.279 that's ever walked the planet. Like it's not even close 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.599 to No one ever rode a shark until Many did it. 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:54.839 No one ever went diving in the water with alligators 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.720 until Many did it. And then like eighteen or twenty 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.480 years old, he had me diving in the Everglades with 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.320 wild alligators and I was like, we're going to die. 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.719 This is the craziest thing ever. And he would go 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.480 down and lesitate. This twelve foot behemoth off the bottom, 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.680 and I just was blown away. I couldn't even imagine 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:14.880 you could get away with that stuff. 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.640 And that's an alligator that he had had no experience with, 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:19.480 so it's not something that he had built any kind 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:20.080 of rapport with. 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.160 Right now, what? 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:25.400 Okay? How? 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:25.880 Why? 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:26.360 Why? 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:26.560 Is? 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.200 Why would they not naturally be fearful of him or 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.440 feel that they were threatened in somebody? 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:34.840 You're the smartest guy I've talked to in a long time, 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.080 because you said fearful, which is exactly the case. Everybody 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:41.080 says they want to eat you. Pretators in general want 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.080 to eat something smaller. They want to risk being the 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.599 meal themselves, so they want to go after something like 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.559 a gator eight foot gator, typically raccoon, possum, fish, bird, 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.279 something like that. They go after something my size. You 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.800 could end up with a panther that eats you. So 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:57.080 they generally don't want to eat us on the land. 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:58.479 It's why you walk up on the golf course. They 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:00.640 jump in the water and take off like they stole something. 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.760 But in the water, I get attacked all the time 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:06.520 because I go in the water to catch these guys 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.040 and they be lined for me. Which is great because 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:10.800 that's how I catch them. I go in the water, 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.240 splash around, I put the noose up, they swimmer into it. 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:14.720 Now we had a gator and a leash. 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:21.320 No misjudge. I totally get what he's saying. I would 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.640 feel so lucky swimming right towards my news. I go, 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:27.440 good day, What a great day. 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:29.160 Yeah, just don't just don't miss the noose. 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:31.960 That's what I'm saying. If you miss caveats, of course, 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:33.600 right and. 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.000 Again, it happens. It does happen all the time. I'll 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.200 get in the water, gat will be line for me. 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:40.040 I wait, there's a video on my Instagram where I 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:41.600 just picked the noose up. He swims right into it. 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:43.320 And now we got a gator in a leash. And 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.440 if you're not looking, and I've had that happen before 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:47.320 where I was like, turned my there's a video. I 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.000 haven't released it yet, but I'm pulling. I swam down 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.920 noose to nine foot alligator. And where I caught him, 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:54.360 I couldn't get him out of the water, too many 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:56.080 trees around. So I was gonna swim to the boat ramp, 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.240 which is like two three hundred yards. So as I'm 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.880 dragging him along. He's like bouncing over stuff, and he 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.960 gets stuck under a ledge, and all of a sudden, 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:08.320 I heard there was two gaters there, and I saw 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.040 a little supposed to be a nine foot and a 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:12.760 six footer. So I see a gat way off in 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:14.480 the distance, but I'm like, he's just sitting there. He's 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.200 a little six footer. Probably we're fine. And I get 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:18.920 close and all of a sudden, this guy stuck under 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:22.720 a ledge, and there's two voices in my head, the 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.520 guy that wants to get stuff done and the coward. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:27.920 And the coward is like, hey, make sure you keep 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:29.920 an eye on that gater because he might be on you. 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:32.280 Because as I'm sitting there bouncing trying to get this 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.400 gater out from this ledge, I'm just bopping up and 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.120 down on the water. So I look at a wounded animal. 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:38.640 And then the guy who's trying to get stuff done 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:40.640 is like, dude, shut up, let me get him out 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.680 of this ledge and then we'll look. And then the 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.000 coward speaks up again, like, hey, if that thing took 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:47.800 off when you started this, he's going to be in 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:50.600 your face in two seconds. And I was like, okay, 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.280 woos and I look up and he's like three feet 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:55.599 from me, coming hard, and I just gave him the 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:59.480 heisman and tossed him back and he ended up. I 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:01.040 ended up catch, but I had to bring the other 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.240 one to shore first. And there's three people on shore 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.680 freaking out because they saw the whole thing. They told 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:07.959 me it was a six and a nine. They were 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.079 both nine. They would both be. They were freaked out, 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.720 like I was gonna die. I was embarrassed that I 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.640 was dumb enough to get that gator stuck on the ledge. 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.160 And I'm coming out making an excuse just like I 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:19.679 couldn't get them over the ledge, like I don't know 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:21.760 what happened. They're like, they're all white, and I'm like, 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:23.920 what's the problem, Like that has to happens all the time. 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.320 I thought they're gonna say, seat floating, body parts floating. Well, 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.560 may I say, man, say something because I watched and 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:31.440 I love I love you, I love your personality, I 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.120 love what you do. But with me, with cars, with 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.160 anything happens in my life. I guess the one statement, 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.480 which is, wow, I never saw that happen before. So 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.000 you're saying they never do it, they don't do it, 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:44.880 and I watched. The thing that I love the most 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.000 is that you always get posts to say, well, it's 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:49.400 going to happen eventually, and you laughed and said. 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:50.360 Give me a day. 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:51.559 Yeah, yeah, what you mean. 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:53.880 It's like driving your car one day. If you drive 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.880 your car, Logan get to do an accident, thanks Einstein, like, yeah, 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:00.240 anything could happen. And listen, I get if you're the 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.640 post that I try to respond with. I try to 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.840 engage with people, and yeah, I get bit all the time. 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:08.880 I probably been bitter for fifty times. I've been bit 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:10.719 in the head five or six times, but not by 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.400 those puppy lap dog gators. It's a gator that I'm 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:15.400 rescuing or a gator I just caught. And I can't 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:20.720 build that relationship with with every Casper, with every Zeus, Stumpy, Sebastian, 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.480 et cetera, et cetera. They're fifteen or twenty more. I 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.920 just can't build that relationship with There is an inherent 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.480 melowist to some of those gators, Like I a gayer 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:32.280 named Jigsaw. I did a YouTube video about him the 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:34.400 day I caught him. I looked at the camera and said, 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.000 I guarantee you two weeks I can pet him in 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:38.480 the face. There's a depth in her eyes sometimes that 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:39.720 I don't know how to explain it, but I know 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:41.960 when I see it. So I have him about twenty times, 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.160 but I could pet him in the face the fourth 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:44.920 day he was in the pit. 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:47.719 I do notice though, you just like I got a 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.040 little bandage on your left hand there. I just it's 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:51.839 just just anecdotally for people that. 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:54.160 May don't ask you about your failures. 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.000 No, but you don't have to ask about mine. They're 0:10:58.080 --> 0:10:59.200 they're fairly well known. 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.160 Some research then bring them up. So the thing that 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:06.120 got me, that's actually, that's actually I wish it was 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.679 a gator was a chainsaw blade trying to sharpened it. 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.120 Trying to sharpened a chainsaw in my truck in the rain. 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:12.800 Because I'm an idiot. 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.360 I know you you say you've been, you know, bitting 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:16.360 on a number of occasions. 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:17.760 I always think, you. 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.280 Know, I we see the movies Delegator close its mouth, 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.000 does the role You're gone? 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:28.400 You have clearly uh survived. So what's the why? Why? 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.920 Why why have you walked away from so many alligator bites? 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.920 Usually it's stirring a feeding Like I get impatient at 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:37.160 the end of the day. And if I'm doing a 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:41.400 mass feeding, I'm just handing out meat like a dealer 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.200 at a casino. Just like here, you get one, you 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:44.800 get one, you get but all of a sudden, yeah, 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:46.720 I'll have them grab me and they'll kind of shake 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:48.400 them like, hey, sorry, dude, didn't know it was you. 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:50.800 Spit me out, then do with the head tricks. Put 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.080 my head in the geter's mouth and got bit. You know, 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.520 five or six times, either I taste like crap or 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.240 they know it's me and they're like, hey, dummy, stop 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:00.040 touching stuff. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.600 In That wound is not a significant wound for you. 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.040 And poor bleach in it and stitch it up. If 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.520 you look at again my YouTube channel, I got been 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.600 by a twelve foot gator in the arms a big 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:11.760 twelve foot jump. We used to do a show for 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.000 a school group and a little gator hole and a big, giant, 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:16.880 twelve foot alligator would come out. You'd reach around with 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.240 a stick and he would just pop up and scare 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.560 the crap out of these kids. But it's to show that, hey, 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:22.760 you can be in the middle of every lage. You 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.240 see a little puddle, don't think that's a good place 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:27.960 to fill your canteen. There might be a twelve foot 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.720 alligator in there. So we were trying to get him 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.240 in the water, and the guy was behind him and 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.079 I'm tapping him on the nose because he'll jump at you. 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.000 His name is Lunge, and he jumped, and when he 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.760 jumped a second time, my foot hit a little like 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:42.560 a tree stumped that was in there, and I couldn't 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.280 slide my foot back, and he went over like instantly 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:48.439 and just got one tooth in me and opened it up. 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.120 As he had locked on. He probably would have taken 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.679 my arm off. But I ended up teaching Jimmy, who 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.040 was my partner on the TV show. I taught him 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.600 how to sew that day on my arm. So poor 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.680 bleach and tea tree oil and starts stitching. 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.959 Kid, You realize with us, if that, what if those 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:06.920 things happened, that's a story for the rest of our lives. 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:08.720 And we not only wouldn't go back in the water 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.760 or near the alligator, we'd move from Florida back to 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.560 New England, probably where there are no alligators. So for 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.120 people who haven't seen the videos, and we'll link to 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:21.559 those videos, Paul's lying there some of them look affectionate 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.600 toward him. I love that some come when you call 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:26.400 their name. Now, they got a brain the size of 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:28.400 a line of beans, so I didn't know that they 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.040 have this spac That's the question. I mean, are are 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:33.120 are our gators? 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:36.600 They respond to you in the way that I would think, 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.079 you know, a cat or a dog might, and and 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.199 a dog is a pretty smart animal. 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:41.880 Yeah. 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:42.320 I mean. 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:54.480 They respond to you in the way that I would think, 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.000 you know, a cat or a dog might, and and 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.080 a dog is a pretty smart animal. 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.679 Yeah. I mean it's all food driven, though. Most of 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.160 them walking over with their mouth open. They're expecting something like, Hey, 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.480 I did just stupid trick. Where's the reward? If you 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.600 see this video I just posted on Instagram, I reposted 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:13.439 one of me and this gator named Snoopy, and I 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:15.840 chase him and tickle him, but he walks up, opens 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:17.400 his mouth right in my face, and I just look 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.200 at his mouth, I look back at the camera. I 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.600 throw him the food and then I go like, tickle it. 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:23.720 I mean, he just runs back in the water. I 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.240 can't cuddle with that gator. He's a little too jumpy 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:27.640 for that. That's why he kind of reacts to the 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:28.560 tickle monster thing. 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.440 Well, okay, so the gator the learning curve on that. 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:34.560 By the way, Oh this one not so much. So 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.000 I think just tickle, just tickle this one. 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.720 No, no, incredible. That's a great point. There's I always say 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.480 in my YouTube channel, Gator Boys Outdoors, that says at 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.600 the beginning, like, hey, they're all very unpredictable from one 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.800 to another, though, I mean like each one is unpredictable 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:55.000 from one to another within themselves. Incredibly consistent animals. You 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.160 gotta understand the operating system, and the gater's brain is 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.680 so much smaller than that of like a mammal or 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.280 a prime primate, especially that they have emotions, They hold grudges, 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.760 they get their feelings hurt, they they plot and plan. 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.360 Gators are like living breathing machines pretty much. 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.000 But you know what, there were studies, Paul, and I'm sure, 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:17.640 I mean, you're up on this. It showed they wanted 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:19.840 to know gator sentience, what they felt, and they came 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:28.880 up with that they feel anxiety, distress, frustration, excitement, fear, suffering, 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.560 and that's I mean, that's about it. And I'm wondering 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.480 when you're with them though, since they're they're they're hunter 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:38.200 and they want to be fed. How do you know 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.680 when you're playing with Casper that you threw them three 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.600 chicken legs and he's full? How do you know Casper's 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.520 not going I'm not there yet, I'm not at the close. 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:50.320 It's it's actually the opposite. You don't want to feed 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.400 him before you get in there, because Casper's cataracts to 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:55.560 what I and the other one is probably almost completely blind, 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.720 so his vision isn't great. So if you feed him 0:15:58.720 --> 0:15:59.680 and all of a sudden you go to touch a 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:01.680 side of his face, he might think you're feeding him again. 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.760 Grab it turns on that feeding response. Gators in Holiday 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:07.760 Park are just like that, Like god Zilla's a sweetheart. 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:09.080 I can kiss them on the side of the face. 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:11.240 I'm not going to do it for a few minutes 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.360 after I feed him, because he still has that feeding response. 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.680 He's the He's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:18.960 But so people think they're just stuffed with food. It's 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:20.400 got nothing to do with that. They're not going to 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:22.720 ever view me as a food source. I'm too big. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.320 It is amazing to watch you lie down in a 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.720 pit with like eight alligators and they don't bother you. 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.160 They walk around you, they walk over you, they sit 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:32.680 with you. Now do they like affection? Do they like 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:35.560 to be I mean, there's one video of a little 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.400 albino alligator. The guy is scratching its back. We just 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:40.960 learn about that word, but they called this an albino lot. 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:46.440 That's the name of the alligator has albinism. But okay, 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.760 caught me up break and it's scratching him and the 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:52.120 alligator's laughing. He's got a mouth white hope, So they're 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.880 saying it's laughing. Do they like to be touched or 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:56.960 would they rather not? Because I read that they're also 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:58.080 sensitive around their head. 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.040 Yeah, I've got a gator namector that My friend Shanda 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.280 was like this amazing ultra triathlete. She used to lay 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:09.040 with hector on her lap for hours and she'd like 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.399 rub his jaw muscles and his eyes would always just 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.080 shut super slow like he was. If you look at 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.040 the video. I tell that story, he's on my life. 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.320 I talk about it. I rub his jowls, it's his 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.280 jaw muscles and his eyes closed. As I mentioned Shandon, 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.280 I don't know if you remembered her or if he 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:26.400 was just like, yeah, that's pretty good spot right there. 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.000 But that's what's amazing. They look like there's an affection, 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.520 and I know you really you say there's not, and 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.120 that if I do something stupid. I mean, you had 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.200 the chilling one that I didn't see till after a while. 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.080 Was you in the show put your head inside the 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.840 gator's mouth like a lot of times a day and 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.440 you missed that bad stuff happened a couple of times. 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:50.280 Correct, just got I'm failures, huh. 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.080 But well, I just wanted to because the fact. 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:55.760 That absolutely I used to be very I have a 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:57.639 lot of respects for the Seminel tribe of Florida. I 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.800