Inside New Orleans’s Great American Alligator Museum, visitors’ emotions can run the gamut—from spine-chilling apprehension to warm-and-fuzzy affection. “Many people come into the museum and marvel at Fideaux, our 14-foot taxidermy alligator who greets visitors with a wide toothy grin as they enter the main gallery, saying, ‘That’s a dinosaur!’” says Liz McDade, co-owner of the museum. “And then as they take a few more steps inside, we hear people talking about ‘Killer’—our baby alligator [part of Louisiana’s conservation initiative]—and they coo, ‘He’s so cute!’” McDade, a geologist, and her…
