United States Destinations

The Cajun answer to Crocodile Dundee

By Toni Dabbs

"Welcome to the Swamp!"

Jim Ragland seems sane enough as he greets passengers boarding the 49-seat Alligator Queen for a cruise through the Spanish Lake Basin, a 13,000-acre wetland comprising bayous, swamps and lakes between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

However, one starts to wonder when he coos to the first 'gator sighted, an eight-foot-long female sunbathing on a log. And as he walks about the barge-like boat during the 90-minute Alligator Bayou Tours excursion, first with an opossum wrapped around his neck and then with a snapping turtle balanced on his hand, he raises serious doubts. But the clincher comes when he feeds a 14-foot-long 'gator, his fingers coming within inches of jaws that could easily rip off his arm.

Ragland isn't crazy, though. He and business partner Frank Bonifay, who pilots the boat, have found an entertaining way to educate people about the wetland and its inhabitants, which both men genuinely love.

Truth be told, Ragland and Bonifay, of French, Cajun and Canary Islander descent, are keen conservationists, responsible for rescuing more than 900 acres of the basin from timber cutters. By forming a national non-profit organization, they preserved Cypress Flats, which hosts hundreds of bird species migrating along the Mississippi River Flyway, and Bluff Swamp, where 700-year-old giant bald cypress trees grow.

To further protect the basin, they privately purchased the 60-acre entrance at Alligator Bayou and another 339 acres for wildlife rehabilitation. In 1997, they launched their eco-tours to inform visitors about the importance of the wetland environment and the area's colourful cultural history, receiving a tourism award in their second season of operation.

Ragland uses his swamp creatures to get his listeners' attention so he can explain the roles the animals play in the wetland eco-system. And attention he gets, as kids come forward to feel the 'possum's bristly gray fur and women pucker up to kiss a juvenile alligator.

He keeps their attention, too. At the end of the excursion, more than one youngster clearly remembers, among other details, that egrets eat baby alligators and surviving 'gators can live to be 100 years old.

Of course, Ragland couldn't hold people's attention if he weren't a good storyteller. Many of his stories are about the Acadians from Nova Scotia, people of French heritage who were expelled from Canada when the British discovered them fighting on the "wrong side" during the French and Indian War. Thousands made their way to this part of Louisiana, which has become known as Cajun country.

He also talks about contributions that French, Spanish, Creole, German, Scotch-Irish, Canary Islander and African-American settlers made to the cooking, customs and music of the area. By the end of the tour, he's got the female passengers on their feet, teaching them to dance the Cajun two-step.

More information is available from Alligator Bayou Tours, 35019 Alligator Bayou Road, Prairieville, LA 70769, phone 1-888-379-2677 or 1-225-642-8297, e-mail , web site www.alligatorbayou.com.