Alligators!
It is probably accurate to say that
most visitors to the Everglades are there to see one thing: alligators
(Alligator mississippiensis).
These large reptiles really are impressive. (A large, 60 year old
alligator can be 4.6 meters, or about 15 feet long; maximum weight about
450 kg, or 1000 pounds.) While alligators in unprotected areas tend to
be very shy, those in places like the Everglades or Okefenokee Swamp are
much more relaxed around humans. They think nothing of relaxing on the
banks of a "gator hole", while human tourists in brightly
colored clothes gather around to chatter wildly and loudly.
I have observed that alligators have an intoxicating effect on tourists.
When alligators are present--and in the Everglades they almost always
are--tourists (who we may assume are otherwise
normally intelligent people) are reduced to jabbering incoherently,
informing anyone nearby about the presence of an
alligator (as if a 3+ meter
crocodilian could be easily overlooked),
and repeating mindless comments or self-evident facts like,
"whoah, a gator!",
"lookee that gator!", "that's a big gator!", all
the while with glazed eyes and finger clacking wildly on
camera shutter buttons, taking picture after picture after
picture.
