Monday, August 1, 2011

The Truth About “True Blood’s” Marshmallow-Eating Gators

I'm so glad National Geographic reads my blog ;-) ( Go ask Dallas here )

Do alligators really eat marshmallows? We had to find out after watching True Blood.
For the uninitiated, True Blood is an HBO television series wherein vampires coexist with humans in a town called Bon Temps, La. In Sunday’s episode, Tommy kills his parents and, with the help of his brother Sam, disposes of them in the river. When the bodies float, Sam summons alligators by employing the one thing that they are evidently unable to resist—marshmallows.
Curious, we rang up Captain Jack Sessions of Honey Island Swamp Tours in Slidell, La., whose website mentions tour guides using marshmallows to reward alligators that come close. We also spoke to Michael Delany, a research biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Gainesville, Fla.
Captain Jack, we were watching True Blood and one of the characters baited up alligators with marshmallows. Do alligators like marshmallows?

Sessions: Yeah they do. No doubt about that. That’s a true story there. I go out and call them, bup bup bup bup bup bup–a mating call, you know. And sometimes, when they start coming, you toss them a marshmallow. Then they hang around and we give them a hot dog or two on a stick.

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