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Exploring the Honey Island Swamp

Don Dubuc explores some of the wildlife and attractions of the Honey Island Swamp.

Welcome to the Honey Island Swamp. Because of the diversity here, you're liable to see more wildlife than almost anywhere else in the state. We're hoping to see some wild pigs, maybe Brutus the alligator and of course we've got other animals, like raccoons, keeping us company too.

When people think about a swamp, they think about something smelly, stagnant and disgusting and full of bugs. But there's nothing like that back here.

"Not at all because this water is not stagnant, it always has a slight current," said Jeff Rogers of Cajun Encounters Swamp Tours.

"We came out this big oxbow and that river water drains through the swamp here and slowly pushes it back out to the river. So we don't have any stagnant water, we don't have any mosquitoes, we don't have that methane smell that you get in a lot of swamps," he said.

The swamp is full of legends like the whiskey tree, a meeting pace for moonshiners during Prohibition, and of course the infamous Honey Island Swamp monster. There's also a true to life monster: Brutus.

"He's about a thirteen foot alligator and we've been visiting this alligator for at least twenty years now," Rogers said.

"Louisiana's swamps, in my opinion, are one of the top attractions we have here to bring visitors in to really see what we have to offer. Our swamps, our nature, our wildlife is our top attraction in the state," Rogers said.

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