When director Guy Hamilton was shooting Live and Let Die, Bond’s coolest or cheesiest ever outing, depending on your viewpoint, he was so tickled by the now legendary running-over-alligators stunt that he decided to name the film’s baddie after one Mr Kananga – the man who owned the alligator farm where the sequence was shot.

It’s a cracking sequence. Stranded on an island the size of an Ikea flatpack and hemmed in by large, unfriendly reptiles, Roger Moore’s Bond dodges death in the way that only 007 can – by running across the gators’ backs. And believe it or not, if you’re brave enough, or daft enough, you can try it yourself.

Outside of zoos and the tropical lairs of international villains, there are only two countries on the planet where alligators hang out: China and America. Chinese alligators are mostly on the small side, so to grapple with a living, breathing 300lb reptile America is the place. And oddly, perhaps the best spot for gator wrestling in the US is in Colorado, where there’s an alligator farm with waters that are kept warm year round by a geothermal spring.

Pay $100 (£49) to the man at the gate at Colorado Gators, near Alamosa, and he’ll let you into a pen (read: “swamp”) with dozens of the things. Gator-wrestling classes are a nifty little side business to a working fish farm: the alligators were brought in as waste disposal units for dead fish, and because members of the public kept sneaking in to gaze at them, the owners thought they’d make some money out of their toothy tenants.

Your wrestling starts gently, on three-footers, but even with these relative tiddlers you’ll instantly be struck by how much they want to bite you. It doesn’t get any better as you progress to 5ft and then 7ft monsters – if a finger gets in the way, they’ll have it, and biting is so common that the first rule written in your release form is: “No whining if you get bit.”

Confidence is all: change your mind while trying to grab one and he’ll scarper – or try to gnaw you. The key is stealth, and trying to get one on its own. Be warned: trying to separate a 200lb gator from its buddies is not as easy as your teacher makes it sound – “just grab its tail and pull back!” – but you’re taught what to do if it turns towards you and starts snapping (keep hold and jump in the opposite direction to the movement of the head).

To pin an alligator down, go for his back and shoulders, reach around, hold tight, and then lift up. Your efforts won’t be for nothing: each “catch” is followed by a quick visual inspection from your trainer and, surprisingly often, some delicate medical intervention – for the benefit of the reptile. Gators bite each other a lot.

Complete the one-day course and you’ll be invited back in August to the annual Gatorfest competition. Then all you need to do is bag the biggest beast in the shortest time and you’re the coolest guy in Colorado.

“It’s never 100% safe,” says alligator wrestler Jay Young, who reckons to keep his gator bites down to about one a year. “Just yesterday I was wrestling one which I know is really feisty and he kept snapping and snapping, and he almost got me,” he says. “These are not mild-mannered animals, and if they’re breathing, they’re in a bad mood. But they’re fascinating, powerful, prehistoric – and beautiful, too.”

How to do it

What
Learning to wrestle an alligator

Why
Because it’ll make you feel like Tarzan (loincloth optional)

Where
Colorado, United States

How
Colorado Gators (www.gatorfarm.com), near Almosa, runs regular classes. Call 001 719 378 2612 for details

Cost
Just $100 (£49) buys you a day’s tuition, and if you complete the class you’re allowed back in August to take part in the annual Gatorfest competition

More information
A surprisingly good, if amateur-looking source of online information about American alligators is the Gator Hole (home.cfl.rr.com/gatorhole), which also has some good links. For some grisly but compelling footage of a snake eating an alligator, see www.videotiger.com/alligatorsnakevideo.shtml

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