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STRANGE ANIMAL ATTRACTIONS IN FLORIDA

Twelve entries where the attraction is, in some sense, an animal. The range is the interesting part.

At one end is genuine conservation work: a hospital in Marathon that treats sea turtles and releases them, a spring where the wildlife is simply the wildlife. At the other end is a small island of monkeys in a river, which exists because they had to be put somewhere. In between sit the attractions that were built in the era before anyone asked the question, and have been adapting ever since with varying success.

Also here: a house full of six-toed cats descended from a ship's cat, women performing underwater ballet in a spring since 1947, and one primate that has never been produced for inspection. Several of these are the register's best entries for children, and several are the ones most worth reading about before you decide to give them money.

12
ENTRIES
3
FREE TO VISIT
8/10
MEDIAN STRANGENESS
11
COUNTIES
Skunk Ape Research Headquarters
Skunk Ape Research Headquarters
A cryptid research institute, gift shop, reptile pen, and campground, in one green building on the Tamiami Trail.
CRYPTID · ANIMALS
Ochopee · Collier
$5 exhibit
9WEIRD
Weeki Wachee Springs
Weeki Wachee Springs
A submerged theatre from 1947 where performers breathe from hidden air hoses and hold a smile.
UNDERWATER · ANIMALS
Weeki Wachee · Hernando
$13 state park
9WEIRD
Everglades Wonder Gardens
Everglades Wonder Gardens
A 1936 roadside zoo of alligators and flamingos, kept almost exactly as it was by the photographer who saved it.
ANIMALS
Bonita Springs · Lee
$15
8WEIRD
Gatorland
Gatorland
You enter through the mouth of a giant concrete alligator. It has been that way since 1962.
ANIMALS · ROADSIDE GIANT
Orlando · Orange
$35
8WEIRD
Lion Country Safari
Lion Country Safari
America's first drive-through safari, opened 1967. You drive your own car, windows up, through 900 loose animals.
ANIMALS
Loxahatchee · Palm Beach
$45
8WEIRD
Marineland
Marineland
The world's first oceanarium, built in 1938 as an underwater film studio, in a town of about a dozen people.
ANIMALS
Marineland · Flagler
$18, encounters more
8WEIRD
Monkey Island
Monkey Island
A tiny island in the Homosassa River, held continuously by spider monkeys since the 1960s.
ANIMALS
Homosassa · Citrus
Free from the boardwalk
8WEIRD
Robert Is Here
Robert Is Here
A fruit stand that started with a six-year-old and a sign, now selling mamey milkshakes beside a yard of emus and goats.
ANIMALS
Homestead · Miami-Dade
Free entry
8WEIRD
The Turtle Hospital
The Turtle Hospital
A former 1950s motel converted into a sea turtle hospital, with patients recovering in the swimming pool.
ANIMALS
Marathon · Monroe
$30 guided tour
8WEIRD
Wakulla Springs
Wakulla Springs
One of the deepest freshwater springs on earth, full of mastodon bones, with a 1930s lodge and glass-bottom boats.
UNDERWATER · ANIMALS
Wakulla Springs · Wakulla
$6 per vehicle
8WEIRD
Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks
Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks
A Greek sponge-diving port on the Gulf, in continuous operation since 1905, still selling what the divers bring up.
ANIMALS
Tarpon Springs · Pinellas
Free
7WEIRD
The Hemingway Cats
The Hemingway Cats
Sixty polydactyl cats with presidential names, legally protected as an exhibit by federal court.
ANIMALS
Key West · Monroe
$20 house tour
7WEIRD

BROWSE THE REST OF THE REGISTER

BY TYPE
Built by one person 12 Geological oddities 7 Cryptids 1 Haunted 6 Underwater 7 Roadside giants 9 Animals 12 Ruins and abandoned places 10 Strange towns 3 Machines and vessels 1
BY REGION
The Panhandle 5 North Florida 4 Central Florida 15 The Gulf Coast 11 The Atlantic Coast 4 South Florida 11 The Keys 10
BY COST
Free to visit 24