By Kimberly Black ~ photography by Matt Lit.
Colorado Gator Reptile Park is recovering, rebuilding, and open to the public after a devastating fire last year burned down a barn and killed as many as 180 animals.
The educational reptile facility in Mosca has been open to the public since a week after the fire. A lot of people thought the facility was entirely closed but as family, owner-operator Jay Young said, “We’ve been open the whole time.
We shut down for a week because we had to regroup and figure things out. We got through last summer. It was difficult, but we had to be open or we’d be shut down for good. We rerouted the tour around.”
On April 18, 2023, at 4 a.m., a fire broke out in the old reptile barn. The cause was determined to be a circuit breaker failure. Firefighters were able to save a handful of tortoises, turtles, three dwarf caiman, and one caiman lizard. Young estimated 180 animals died in the fire, including rescue parrots, cats, turtles, tortoises, big lizards, little lizards, about 100 snakes.
“It’s been hard. We did daily counseling with the employees for the first couple of months just because it was very difficult,” Young said, adding, “We are trying to look at the positive, the animals we saved, and no human lives were lost.”
Survivors include Morris the Movie Star, best known for his role in Happy Gilmore, starring Adam Sandler. Also, Mr. Bo Mangles, the largest albino alligator in the world, survived. Despite the tragedy, everything outside the reptile building survived, including more than 300 alligators, albino alligators, tortoises, upwards 100 turtles, lizards and birds. The Gator Farm maintains approximately 500 reptiles and animals. The animals include emus, horses, ducks, and adored Tuca the cockatoo.
A variety of activities are available. Visitors can still hold a baby alligator, see and feed alligators, tortoises, and turtles, and feed the fish in America’s oldest tilapia farm. In fact, the tilapia farm represents the beginning history of this famous landmark. Young’s parents, Erwin and Lynne Young, purchased the facility in 1977.
Young beams as he recounts the history. “When my parents got the facility in 1977, it was just a typical farm, but it had a geothermal well. My dad built a barn in 1980 for grain storage. Over the years, things transitioned from tilapia farm to alligator rescue because my mom kept bringing pets, back in the 1970s,” he recalled. She was the one who liked the “toothy, biting reptiles.” In 1987, the family acquired alligators to eat dead fish from the fish farm — and it just grew from there.
“As soon as people found out we had the alligators, they started bringing us their pet alligators, iguanas, lizards, boas, rattlesnakes, and all sorts of exotics that they shouldn’t have had as pets in the first place,” he said. The family changed the use of the barn to accommodate this new direction. “We built a bunch of reptile habitats in the barn to house all these critters that were being dumped on us. And so that’s how that building came to be,” he said.
Visitors can fish in 2 Mile Creek, wander around the bamboo forest in the greenhouse and outside around the geothermal alligator ponds.
Community support, including financial contributions, is playing a crucial role. The Gator Farm has received an outpouring of support from the community. Fundraisers, including an auction of memorabilia from the reptile park’s famous residents like Morris the Moviestar and Mr. Bo Mangles, helped raise funds for rebuilding efforts. Assistance also came in from local businesses, schools, and a dedicated GoFundMe campaign.
“We just really appreciate the outpouring of love and support from the community,” Young said. “We couldn’t have done it without them. It’s just been amazing.”
The rebuilding process is a labor of love for the Colorado Gators team, with family members taking on key roles during reconstruction. Electrical upgrades have been outfitted throughout the facility. “We upgraded everything electrical that needed to be upgraded whether we thought we needed it or not,” Young said.
The new barn will open in May as the team continues building habitats. There is already a waiting list of animals that need rescuing. Newly-built habitats will fill quickly with those most in need.
“It won’t be a year before we take in enough animals to fill it all,” Young explained. “We’re just going to let it grow organically like it did before.”
Colorado Gator Reptile Park remains committed to its mission of educating the public on responsible pet ownership and rescuing animals. It continues to work with nonprofit rescue organizations across the country. Visitors can enjoy a diverse array of reptiles, while learning about their habitats and behaviors. “We like teaching the kids about reptiles and nature and the excitement they get from hands-on learning,” Young said.
More than 1,000,000 people have visited the site in the last 30 years. The facility has collaborated with researchers, scientists and paleontologists on various projects. “We’ve done stuff with paleontologists where they were comparing the anatomy of alligators and the poop of alligators to dinosaur poop,” Young said. “We collaborated in the late nineties with CU (Colorado University),” Young said, adding they worked with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) on the West Nile virus. Recently the reptile park donated an 11-foot alligator skeleton to the Museum of Nature and Science in Denver for comparative studies with extinct crocodilians.
To support Colorado Gators Reptile Rescue and Education, visit the GoFundMe page: www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-reptile-sactuary.
Colorado Gators is open to the public daily from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Visit their website at:
www.coloradogators.com/.