Half a dozen alligator enthusiasts converged on the San Luis Valley recently to wrestle the prehistoric beasts.
It’s a competition called Gatorfest held yearly at the Colorado Gators and Reptile Park in Mosca, near the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Participants donned costume formal suits and fancy dresses as they raced into the gator pond to hopefully come away a winner… and without injury.
Jay Young, the zoo’s general manager, said competitors are scored based on how big of an alligator they wrestle and bring back to shore and how quickly they manage to do it.
Each round of competition begins with a full-group countdown. Then, the gator wrestler runs into a pond armed with only a lasso-like rope to loop the gator's neck. Some jumped directly onto their gator of choice, others went for a more indirect route, trying to catch the gator with their line.
When the alligator is lassoed, competitors drag it back to shore. Their time stops once the gator’s face is fully out of the pond. The group works together to measure the alligator, identify any ailments and apply antibiotic ointment if necessary, before releasing it back into the pond.
For father-son duo Charlie and David Fox, Gatorfest is an opportunity to visit their fingers and thumbs they have lost in previous trips to the facility. About 8 years ago, Charlie was trying to talk someone into taking a gator-wrestling class, while sitting on a 6-foot gator, when the gator bit off a part of his ring finger.
Just two weeks later, David was helping instruct a less experienced alligator wrestler, when the gator he was on went into an unexpected “deathroll” and snapped off his thumb.
Charlie and David’s severed digits are now in the giftshop on a display called the “Fox Family Finger Gallery.”
David Fox was the day’s big winner after catching three large gators. His dad Charlie finished second, and last year’s defending champion Abby Shu took the bronze.
Interviews for this audio postcard include Jay Young, Victoria Storm, David Fox, Charlie Fox, and Amber Fox.
