The day of our visit in January 2001 was cold but the welcome extremely warm. With so few visitors the staff could have been complacent but we were impressed with their willingness to answer questions and efforts to make the visit enjoyable.

The layout covering more than 20 acres of wetland habitat is well thought out with boardwalks connecting the exhibits. The whole effect is natural and the creatures seem well at home there.

Vast numbers of American Alligators roam the waters and lie about in the mud and on each other, seemingly without bother. We asked when the next feeding would take place expecting to be told 3pm. The answer was April! No wonder they looked so slothful, they were well fed.

A smallish 4 year old alligator was passed around for people to hold. Apparently Seminole Indians put alligators to sleep. We were shown how to do this by turning her over and rubbing her belly. We wish we had asked what the cut off size is for this but then why would they want to do it to a fully grown animal?

Casper and Wendy are rare all white albino alligators 2 of only 7 known to exist. They have their own house and pool and were also quite inactive. In fact with their strange colouring it was difficult not to think they were plastic. Still, it's a bit much to expect them to move around just to show they are real!

We saw an extensive collection of snakes in the 5000 sq ft serpentarium. Some were right up against the glass and we took some convincing that the glass was actually between us!

Documentaries have been made about the Komodo Dragon the world's largest living lizard. Even though these are housed in a lifelike habitat, to us, they struggle to be impressive alongside the other similar and much bigger creatures.

There is also a large collection of rare and endangered crocodiles. One has green pond slime covering the part of its body lying in the water. It's keeper said it only leaves the water 3 times a year and by the look of it does not move too much the rest of the time.

We were not too interested in the aquatic turtles, lizards, frogs and toads, although the bull frog was rather impressive. No wonder it makes so much noise with a body like that!

Dotted around the park are largish dome shaped heated aviaries with spectacularly coloured birds. These were our favourite exhibits. One salmon and white macaw came up to the bars and dropped his head to be stroked. At least that was our interpretation of what he wanted.

We are used to pounding the fairways catching the odd glimpse of an alligator or pretty bird. It was really exciting to see and learn about so many indigenous creatures and others that we hope never to see on a golf course!