COUËRON, France – His neighbours have cats and dogs, but when 72-year-old Philippe Gillet settles down to watch television there is usually an alligator dozing beside him.
His bungalow in western France is also home to a venomous Gabonese viper, a spitting cobra, a python, alligator turtles that can bite off a finger, tarantulas and scorpions.
When someone unfamiliar enters Gillet’s living room, Gator, a two-metre-long (6.5 feet) alligator, growls from under a coffee table.
“Calm down,” said Gillet and Gator went back to his snooze near Alli, another dozing alligator.
“When there is a storm he comes to sleep in my bed,” said Gillet. “People think I am mad.”
Videos of such episodes and other everyday tales of his deadly menagerie of 400 animals have made Gillet a social media star. They also promote his Inf’Faune charity which aims to educate people about the animals he is so passionate about.
Gillet lived in Africa for 20 years, working as a hunting guide. He said he would often catch crocodiles there to keep them away from villages.
Back in France, he became a herpetologist — a specialist on reptiles and amphibians. He made his base in Coueron, west of Nantes, with his partner, their children, and the animals.
In the garden is Nilo, a Nile crocodile, who Gillet said was “one of the most dangerous species”. Chickens wandered by scratching for food.
Most of the animals were bought or given to him by people who could no longer care for them. France’s customs department has also sometimes turned to him.
Look but don’t touch
“You cannot just free them,” said Gillet. “With global warming, freed cobras could reproduce and spread. Is that what we are going to leave our kids?”
Financing his passion has become a problem since the Coronavirus epidemic however.
His association could no longer organise fund-raising open days to show off the animals to the public. That used to bring in 100,000 euros ($105,000) a year.
Now his social media videos are the main way he gets the conservation message across.
He chooses a different animal for each video, mixing education and humour “to demystify the legends and preconceptions about wild animals”.
Inf’Faune built up 100,000 YouTube followers in its first four months and now has 200,000. Gillet also has 700,000 TikTok followers. The revenues allow Gillet and the 20 volunteers who help him feed the animals.
But Gillet is still concerned about the future as he ages.
“Alligators can live up to 100 on average and Allia and Gator are about 30. The volunteers will have to take over,” he said.
He is already training the volunteers on looking after the animals and wants to set up a specialised refuge for reptiles far from the suburbs where there would be less need for cages and pens.
With his internet following, Gillet has already raised 15,000 euros for the centre. “There are refuges for dogs and cats, why not for these unloved” species.
(AFP)