‘He’d bite me in the face if I didn’t get out of the way’: Incredible scenes as reptile expert ‘Crocodile Chris’ blows playful bubbles at killer alligator named Casper as they swim together
- Beautiful footage shows Chris playing with Casper in the Everglades Outpost
Incredible scenes show daredevil reptile expert Chris Gillette playing underwater with a deadly alligator in Florida.
The stunning footage shows ‘Crocodile Chris’ blowing bubbles at Casper to demonstrate the Underwater Gator Tour at the Everglades Outpost.
For the tours, a single guest in Chris’s company gets to swim with the alligator to see how the predator moves in a 30,000-gallon aquatic habitat.
Chris said, “Gator trying to bite me in the face? No, it’s just Casper feeling around while I blow bubble rings at him.
“I mean, he’d bite me in the face if I didn’t move away.
The stunning footage shows ‘Crocodile Chris’ playing with Casper as part of the Underwater Gator Tour at the Everglades Outpost in Homestead, Florida
Reptile expert Chris Gillette in the water with an alligator. The tours allow a single guest in Chris’s company to swim with the alligator to see how the predator moves in a 30,000-gallon aquatic habitat
“When he does this, he has his eyes closed and he’s groping around underwater.”
The underwater tour experience allows you to swim with an alligator, with only a net barrier between you and the reptile.
It is designed for serious underwater photographers and nature lovers aged 16 or older and costs $250 for a 30-minute session.
Visitors are not allowed to touch the alligator, but can get close enough to study the reptile’s behavior.
Casper is one of fifteen alligators and four crocodiles at the Everglades Outpost. Gillette has been working with the reptile for more than twelve years.
Chris holds Casper at the Everglades Outpost. The underwater tour offered by the educational organization is intended for serious underwater photographers and nature lovers aged 16 or older and costs $250 for a 30-minute session
According to Adventura Magazine, it was deemed a “nuisance alligator” by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission more than a decade ago.
“People want to do this, and I had to find a way to meet this demand,” Chris told the publication. ‘Then I came up with the idea of letting people do this in a responsible way. We in no way encourage people to ever interact with or attempt to swim with a wild alligator.”
To maintain his ‘quarterback build’, Casper lives on a steady diet of frozen rats.
“He’ll bite the hand that feeds him,” Chris said. ‘He’s not drugged or specially trained. He hasn’t grown up with us since he was a baby. He was caught when he was only six inches shorter than he is now.”
Chris below Casper and swimming next to him as he smiles at the camera at the Everglades Outpost
The Everglades Outpost in Homestead is a nonprofit 501c(3) educational organization founded in 1991 by Bob Freer and his wife Barbara. Their main purpose is to receive, rehabilitate and release injured and injured wildlife back into the wild.
Most animals residing in the nature reserve have been seized by wildlife, fish and game officers due to illegal situations or abuse, or have been abandoned by their human owners.
The rehabilitation center provides medical care and treatment to the sick and injured. Whenever possible, the animal is released into its natural habitat.