Paging Captain Hook

It is not a job people take for the money. The Okalee Village job pays $8 an hour to start. If you survive long enough you may earn up to $12 an hour. Not a lot of money considering gators possess 82 razor-sharp teeth and jaws capable of delivering a crushing 2,000 pounds per square inch.

Tim Williams works at Gatorland in Orlando, and despite 30 years of mixing it up with alligators he still possesses all 10 fingers. But he says gator teeth are an occupational hazard. "Race car drivers are going to have wrecks, carpenters are going to smack their fingers, and alligator wrestlers are going to get bit," Mr. Williams says.

Most alligator shows are more wildlife seminar than death-defying stunt. But they have their moments. Generally, the "wrestler" enters a pool of gators, grabs one by the tail, pulls him onto shore and then dives down on his back before the gator can spin around and bite him. Then the handler demonstrates how a gator has extreme crushing power while biting down, but little ability to open its mouth. Most handlers demonstrate this by pinching the jaws between their chin and chest while raising their arms in a kind of butterfly pose. This is when tourists snap a photograph.

It doesn't always go according to plan. In February, Seminole Chief James Billie lost a finger to a gator during an impromptu wrestling session in front of 50 tourists on the Big Cypress Indian Reservation. Nearly three years ago, wrestler Kenny Cypress's head got trapped inside a gator's mouth during a show. It took two men and a crow bar to free Mr. Cypress, who survived the incident.

Who would want to do this for a living?

Four candidates have emerged among those responding to the newspaper ad. One is a real estate agent, another is a young woman attending college. The third is a former male model and cologne spokesman. The last candidate is a charter boat captain and shark fisherman. If selected, the "lucky ones" will undergo four weeks of training before displaying their skills (or lack thereof) in a pond full of actual alligators in front of a crowd of actual tourists.

Williams says the best advice he's ever received about working with gators came from an old-timer who still had all his limbs. "Just remember, all they got is time," he says. "They don't have to go shopping, they don't have to go to work, or pick up the kids, all they have to do is sit around and wait for you to make a mistake," he says. "They are opportunity eaters. They wait for something to grab."

At Gatorland, there are often 20 alligators in the show area, Williams says, and sometimes visitors ask whether anyone has ever fallen in. "None that we know of," he says.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society

Page: 1 | 2