gators

caveman · June 08, 2016, 02:53:44 PM

A month or so ago I posted a picture of a large gator in my neighbor's yard. Yesterday when my wife picked up our youngest daughter from school she came across this scene that made the front page of the local mullet wrapper.
Caveman

Den Socling · June 08, 2016, 03:17:44 PM

An ugly situation! This is at least twice in the past couple weeks that they have found gators eating corpses. One I read about had the victim not only unidentified but they could not even tell if it was male or female. yuch!

Den Socling · June 15, 2016, 02:23:42 PM

Again with the gators! Orlando is really having a bad month.

Chuck White · June 15, 2016, 05:11:19 PM

The gator situation in Orlando is really a sad issue.

It's hard to believe that such a tragedy could have happened.

My heart and prayers go out to the family.

Den Socling · June 15, 2016, 05:44:45 PM

Really! If you took you kid to Disney World, the last thing you would expect would be an alligator attack.

Peter Drouin · June 15, 2016, 06:41:19 PM

Just like the gorilla killing. Mom and dad not watching the kids, too busy playing with their phones. :

Den Socling · June 15, 2016, 07:18:40 PM

That's probably true and the toddler was only 2 years old.

sandhills · June 15, 2016, 09:55:17 PM

The family lives a couple hours away from us, I don't believe all the media says anymore, you never know what the actual story is, but no matter what this one ended in tragedy.

Den Socling · June 15, 2016, 10:37:31 PM

I hope nobody thinks I'm a jerk if I tell a happier alligator story. Here goes. Patti and I have camped in the Everglades a couple times. There are a lot of alligators in that swamp.

We have a couple ocean kayaks and paddle the big ponds they have. We had been thinking about an interesting looking pond/lake for a couple days and had talked to the rangers about it. "Nice place to paddle" they claimed.

It had small waterways connected to other ponds. We put the boats in and started across. Patti was in front.

Alligators started sliding into the water with us. Patti was yelling @$#^%!! I told her to hold still while I got a picture of her with the alligators. To that she answered @$^*&^$!!!!

I missed a great shot. :D

scgargoyle · June 16, 2016, 06:47:11 AM

I'm really surprised that Disney didn't post alligator warnings on that lake. The signs just say 'No Swimming'. Having lived in FL for years, I know better. Splashing around in shallow water at night is a bad idea. I won't even walk along the water's edge, as gators will lay submerged and charge prey walking by. They rarely attack human adults, as we are the wrong shape and size. We often had gators in the pond behind our house, and they ignored a person standing on the dock. But bring the dog out, and they came cruising over. A small child could fit within their 'prey size' and trigger an attack. Just a tragic accident.

Den Socling · June 16, 2016, 10:16:18 AM

I'm sure the parents never dreamed that there would be alligators in that water. A man-made lagoon at a resort? They never expected it. Disney should have posted signs and they should have removed alligators that were there.

Raider Bill · June 16, 2016, 11:42:23 AM

I guess "NO SWIMMING" was just a suggestion.

WildlandFirefighter912 · June 16, 2016, 11:50:05 AM

Its florida. Bunch of gators..just like here in southeast georgia. They travel. Well you have to remember..disney built their parks in swamps. Us humans have basically walked into a habitat and many humans are now destroying the animals habitat so now the animal is going to have to adjust and live next to humans. To them youre just another predator or food.

Florida's habitat is being destroyed due to man then man brings in invasive species and lets them out on our natural animals habitat.

We had a pet alligator but let him go. He was three legged when we found him and was small. So we let him grow and released him into the local bay where he probably came from. Mean [I have typed a profane word that is automatically changed by the forum censored words program I should know better].

WildlandFirefighter912 · June 16, 2016, 11:55:48 AM

Oh heres a video of the gator feeding frenzy here at Okee. Boy i grew up with dad filmed it.

https://youtu.be/r_HeUT8hs_c

Roxie · June 16, 2016, 06:10:22 PM

@Den Socling, I like your gator story. :D

Den Socling · June 16, 2016, 07:08:19 PM

I'm glad. It was one of those days I will never forget.

sandhills · June 16, 2016, 09:11:46 PM

Den, I did too. I wasn't trying to sound stupid but with them from Nebraska, well, we don't have a lot of gators here, I ran off 3 times at our state fair one year when I was young, no such thing as a cell phone then, but multiple fam. I've so far managed to raise 2 daughters who are teenagers now but I know how fast they can just "disappear" as I said before I don't know the whole story, but absolutely not ready to start firing bullets at the parents, as I understand they had a 4 year old in a play pen, was he handicapped, were they watching him, why would this be? I'm sorry rant over but I wasn't there and I just can't believe everything I hear in the news anymore, I do know they have our thoughts and prayers.

scgargoyle · June 17, 2016, 07:01:28 AM

People ignore signs all the time, especially if they don't know that there's a real danger. I've been swimming on several occasions near a 'No Swimming' sign. Folks from Nebraska can't really be expected to know about alligators, especially in a theme park, where everything else is fake.

Clearing the gators out of the lagoon would only be a very temporary solution, as they walk around more than you might suspect. Any body of water in FL has to be assumed to contain gators- even salt water. I had a friend out wading the flats in Tampa Bay and had a gator cruise right by him.

Just Me · June 17, 2016, 07:30:00 AM

Its going to get worse. Nile crocodiles have been released in the Everglades and have been breeding. Alligators are polite compared to Nile Crocs.

caveman · June 17, 2016, 08:18:00 AM

I do not doubt that Nile Crocs have been released into the Everglades. Goodness knows that everything else is down there. Hurricane Andrew, in 1992, exacerbated the problem by compromising so many exotic animal enclosures. There are native crocodiles in the Everglades but they do not get really large and are quite rare when compared to alligators. We saw some native crocodile while canoeing the wilderness waterway down near Flamingo several years ago.

When my oldest daughter was about three or four years old, a gator about seven or eight feet long aggressively popped out of the water a foot or so in front of her in the pond that we now store our logs in. That event coincided with his expiration date (we had been gone a week and he evidently took up residence in our pond during our absence).

Member JMoore and I used to wade fish a local lake quite often when we were in high school. We would frequently see gators of various sizes and most of them presented no threat. Occasionally, there would be one that seemed aggressive or would get a little too close for comfort. One time we climbed out of the water and onto a dock. The homeowner came out yelling at us to get off of her dock and threatening to call the cops. We politely invited her to call them and ensured her that we would get off of her dock as soon as the gator lost interest in us and moved on.

On another note, I cannot imagine the horror that the family from Nebraska must have experienced. The news stations certainly have not missed the opportunity to sensationalize the tragedy.
Caveman

Raider Bill · June 17, 2016, 08:51:29 AM

I have a county park lake right behind my house. It's full of gators. Signs everywhere. Yet.. several times a year some idiot will play catch with their dog and throw the ball into the water then squeal because fluffy got ate. Just happened a month ago. People told her she shouldn't be doing it but she knew more than they did. She screamed, hollered and started the blame game.

Read the signs Lady.

Oddly there is a disc golf course that runs along 1 side of the lake. Sometimes the frisbees end up in the water. The players use long poles to get them back or wade in if they can't. Never had any issues with full sized humans.

About every year they send trappers to clean out the over 6 footers. In reality they may catch 20 or so of all sizes but there are plenty well over 11 ft still there. I got married on a wooded bridge there 26 years ago. there was a big gator under the bridge at the time. He has a big chunk out of his tail so easy to ID. Saw him yesterday.

red · June 17, 2016, 09:43:40 AM

While these "accidents" are tragic and heartbreaking . I am sure there will be more .

WmFritz · June 17, 2016, 10:44:14 AM

Quote from: caveman on June 17, 2016, 08:18:00 AM

On another note, I cannot imagine the horror that the family from Nebraska must have experienced.
Caveman

My thoughts also...

Bad things happen to good people. I have nothing but empathy for this family.

WildlandFirefighter912 · June 17, 2016, 11:01:42 AM

People dont understand that if you move into a habitat for animals away from the concrete jungle..then youll most likely will run into creatures. Their instinct is to survive..just like you would if you would be out in the cold dark woods. But lots of people dont think that.

Its like playing with fire. Expect to get burned sooner or later.

Oh and here is peg leg that we had

Czech_Made · June 17, 2016, 11:33:03 AM

^^^That^^^

Compassion is only for humans, animals really care for survivor only.

There was a squirrel caught in my son's baseball net - I put on gloves and tried to get it out. That bugger bit me twice through the glove, he could not care less i was tryng to help him. My point is you can have the best intensions but the animal will never understand it.