KEENANSVILLE, Fla — "We're looking for alligators - one thing that is unique about our body of water that we operate on, we have a lot of nesting bald eagles so almost every tour you are going to see a bald eagle," says PJ Brown.
Brown is the marketing director at Wild Florida Adventure Park. The park is less than an hour south of Orlando, but you won't find much city life here.
"Everybody that comes to Florida especially Central Florida and the Orlando area - they are coming for the big parks - and we love to be able to show the guests that they are coming to see them something that we've had for hundreds and hundreds of years....show them the beauty of what Florida really is, " says Brown
So how did this adventure park sprout up literally in the middle of nowhere?
"It's kind of an interesting story-so it's a family-owned business, a couple of sons and a son-in-law, and Dad saw this piece of property. It used to be an old fish camp, and thought, oh, you know what? We could maybe run some airboats out of here," according to Brown.
Their fleet of airboats quickly went from just two to eleven.
"It grew pretty rapidly on the airboat side, and then we grew it into more than just an airboat company. We have our gator park and now our drive-through safari park," explains Brown.
Our first stop in the "gator park" was naturally to see the "Crusher" show. This rescued thirteen-foot alligator wowed the crowd as the show ended with Crusher getting a kiss.
The park also features some cuddlier animals, like Chloe and her brand-new baby sloth. The baby doesn't have an official name yet, but in the meantime, the staff calls her "slap bracelet."
They say the baby links to Mom most of the time, but when we pick her up and take her off to weigh her, she links to us.
Rose is a three-year-old African Warthog who likes to "ham" it up for the cameras.
You can also feed capybaras - the world's largest rodent. The staff says they're super friendly and loved every bite of the kale and lettuce we fed them.
In need of some natural air-conditioning, we headed into the hawk swamp, where the temperature literally drops 10-15 degrees.
"They also attract all of this Spanish moss - so you can definitely feel how it cools down a lot - we have had owls with red shoulder hawks so it's a really cool thing because it's all pure nature," says Brown.
From the serenity and cool temps of the swamp, we headed to the grassy plains bathed in the midday sun for a drive-through safari.
Brown says the perks of the drive-through element allow everyone to enjoy all the animals the park has to offer.
"Yeah and having that option to be in your air conditioning in the car in the middle of summer in Central Florida, that's huge. Or when it starts raining - those animals still are out they love it - because it rains it cools them off - but people don't want to walk around in the rain so they love it."
It's 170 acres of natural Florida landscape with over 150 exotic animals.
"You can literally be in one spot and see animals from all over the world - we like to say you can see animals from A to Z - alligators to zebras, " according to Brown.
Come experience this Everglades ecosystem and see the wild side of Florida.
Watch "Finding Florida" each Sunday at 10 a.m. on WPTV!
