Who wants turkey for Thanksgiving? Many are choosing alligator, bear, elk and different unique meats.

Like numerous Americans, Kimberly Darling celebrates Thanksgiving with a bountiful, home-cooked feast. Her tackle the vacation has a swampy twist: She forgoes the acquainted turkey in favor of an alligator she traps on considered one of her many searching expeditions, then she brines, smokes and wraps it in bacon earlier than serving her company.

“People walk in and they’re like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s a literal alligator. What did we sign up for?’” she says.

But…