In my years as an entertainment journalist, I’ve been lucky enough to speak with more than my share of award-winning artists and high-powered executives; I’ve even enjoyed face time with a childhood hero or two. But it’s extremely unusual for any celebrity meet-and-greet to leave me with wobbly knees and sweaty palms like I experienced during my recent encounter at Gatorland with the world-famous Jawlene.
That’s mostly because meeting this pint-sized alligator — who went viral last year when she was rescued from a Sanford swamp after somehow surviving a horrific amputation of her entire upper jaw — required gingerly duck-walking my way inside Gatorland’s baby gator exhibit, with tourists gaping at me through foggy Plexiglas. Crouched in the corner of the fragrant enclosure, just inches away from the miraculous little maneater’s razor-sharp remaining mandible, I stilled my shaking hands long enough to take video of her chomping on raw chicken, deftly compensating for her disability with her dextrous tongue. The resulting Reel swiftly racked up over a million more views than anything I’ve previously posted on Instagram, once again proving the amazing power that animals have (even those that aren’t conventionally adorable) to touch hearts and change lives.
Some who knows that power better than most is Savannah Boan, the fiercely fearless woman who led me into that reptilian rec room, locked us both inside — so nobody could enter or escape, natch — and served Jawlene her snacks, while I tried desperately not to accidentally step on any of her sleeping cousins. Boan first attracted my ear over a quarter-century ago as one of the outrageous personalities on 104.1 FM’s “Russ & Bo Show,” which evolved into the massively successful “Monsters in the Mornings” talk show. Boan, who calls her radio persona “a caricature of myself,” has exited and rejoined the anarchic troupe over the decades. “We’re like a family — it’s really, really a blessing to have known those people for that long,” Boan said. “It’s a really warm spot.”
However, long before she became on-air den-mother to a pathological pack of manchildren, Boan longed to work with wild creatures of a completely different kind. “Growing up in a small town in South Carolina, I didn’t have that many friends and my family was not affluent, so I remember taking in all these stray pets, bringing them into my house, against my mom’s better judgment,” she recalls. The first time she ever visited Gatorland, “It was a rainy day, and I remember thinking that none of the animals were real until I saw the Jumparoo show. In that moment, I know it sparked something,” she said — “a love of wildlife that I’d always had when I was younger.”
Boan worked at a reptile zoo during a sojourn in California, then spent seven years submitting job applications at Gatorland before finally landing her dream job. “The only reason I came back to Florida was because I wanted to work for Gatorland,” Boan said, adding that she was finally interviewed and hired directly by the 75-year-old family-owned park’s CEO, Mark B. McHugh. Today, Boan serves a dual role as both the world’s first professional “Crocodilian Enrichment Coordinator” inside the park and the International Ambassador for Gatorland Global, whose conservation projects supporting croc sanctuaries in places like Jamaica and Cuba are entirely funded by Gatorland’s social media channels.
“Gatorland is really big on people developing relationships with the animals that they care for,” said Boan, whose work involves spending endless hours simply watching and talking to her crocodile companions. “Their nuances are very subtle: It could be an eye closing when you’re around, it could be a turn, it could be a deep breath. … I don’t know what [the animal’s] terms of the relationship are, but I know what mine are, and that is to be in the presence of this amazing dinosaur.”
Which brings us full circle back to Jawlene, who Savannah suspects was likely mutilated by a boat propeller or machete before being brought to Gatorland by Florida Wildlife Commission trapper Jerry Flynn.
“She was such a survivor, her injury was all the way completely cleaned up and cleared by the time she got here,” Boan said, explaining that Jawlene taught herself to force her glottis into her sinuses so that she can swim without drowning. “There’s no way she would have survived [in the wild long-term] but she was doing pretty good for what she was having to deal with, [and] she’s doing great now — she’s the happiest little alligator.”
Jawlene has gotten global attention unlike anything in Gatorland history.
“Even now, every single day, everybody that comes to the park just asks about her all the time,” Boan said. “For all of these people that love her so much, it’s a great success and survival story.”
Boan hopes Jawlene will help inspire empathy for other non-cuddly creatures.
“It’s hard to get people to want to conserve something that could hurt or harm them, but if you fall in love with Jawlene, then you might see the whole picture a little bit differently.”
