4th of July: Patriotic alligators sing 'God Bless the USA'

Los Angeles Times / Latimes.com ^ | July 4, 2012 | By Rene Lynch

[thecodont]

The 4th of July must be celebrated with a bit of patriotic music, right? But we can do better than the 1812 Overture or John Philip Sousa: Let's watch alligators singing patriotic music!

This video comes to us from reptile expert and conservationist Jim Nesci. It features Nesci's gators bellowing along to country artist Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA."

We just had to call Nesci and ask: How did you train the alligators to do that?

Turns out, the gators just did it on their own. Here's the back story to the video:

"I happened to be down in the basement one day and I had the radio on. I cranked up 'God Bless the USA,' just because I happen to like that song," Nesci told the Los Angeles Times. "Some of the low-pitched sounds in the song stimulate the gators. And they just started bellowing."

[thecodont]

Video at link.

[thecodont]

Thought this might interest you.

[rawcatslyentist]

DIrect youtlink

[Slings and Arrows]

BFL

[The Cajun]

Thought this might interest you.

Well when the gators around here start singing *When The Levee Breaks* by Led Zeppelin, I'll be taking notice, LOL.

[HiTech RedNeck]

alligator roar

[Eccl 10:2]

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

[Iron Munro]

Maybe they were getting excited over the bloody dead chickens being held up by the guy out of frame on the left.

[chargers fan]

The article references how one of the alligators (Bubba) follows him around the house and drives with him. No thanks on that. It always seems in these situations (people owning “wild” animals as pets) that the animal remembers that it's wild at the most inopportune time.

[wildbill]

Yeah, but the one in the middle was off key.

This is all part of what the NY Times says is the “Downside of Democracy.”