Alligator Sightings More Prevalent as Weather Warms

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Keep your eyes peeled for alligators

 Contributed by UF Newsies - Posted: April 29, 2009 12:00:00 AM

 

By Bridget Higginbotham, Newsies Contributing Writer

Coming back from a bike ride near his parents’ Haile Plantation home last August, Scott Gulig turned the corner and there it was.

A 4-foot alligator was sunning itself in the middle of the path.

The freshman biology major slammed on his brakes. He fell off his red mountain bike, about 15 feet away from the reptile. 

“It was big,” he said. “I was pretty sure it could take me down.” 

Scared, Gulig was shaking. In the 18 years he had lived with his parents, he had never seen an alligator in the retention pond. 

But the alligator didn’t move.

When Gulig realized it had barely noticed his presence, he began to calm down.

Collecting himself, Gulig went home another way.

“I don’t think it saw me,” he said. “I think that was funny.”

Such unexpected alligator sightings are likely to increase as the weather warms up.

And because April and May are mating season, alligators are more active now as they look for partners. 

But this does not mean that alligators are more dangerous than they are any other time of the year, according to Lindsey Hord, a biologist and coordinator of the Statewide Alligator Nuisance Program for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Hord says that mature alligators, or those more than 6-feet long, make themselves more visible as they try to look for mates.

Both males and females move around and make mating calls. 

Mating season coincides with the end of the winter dormant season. so alligators are also feeding and enjoying the warmer weather. Low water levels also contribute to greater visibility.

While the statewide nuisance alligator program receives more calls this time of year, it does not mean the threat of an alligator attack is greater, Hord said. 

The commission’s Web site reports that serious bites are increasing at a rate of 3 percent each year, equaling about one additional bite every four to five years. 

Hord attributes this rise to the increase in the human population, not an increase in alligator aggression.

“There is no greater danger than a decade ago,” he said. 

When Hord hears of parents who are worried to send their children out on lakes in boats or rafts because of alligators, he tells them that the alligators shouldn’t be the first concern.

An average of 465 people drown in the state of Florida every year, according to the Florida Department of Health Office of Injury Prevention. On the other hand, the commission reports 22 total deaths in the state have been caused by alligators since 1973.

“When you stack those two up against each other, people need to worry more about drowning than alligators,” Hord said.

When freshmen English major Shae McDaniel went kayaking with her friends on Lake Wauberg two weekends ago, she was not initially worried about either.

Wearing life vests, McDaniel and roommate Katie Latham paddled their yellow kayak towards a bank in order to get a better view of three alligators sunning themselves in the good weather. 

From a distance, they saw the head of an alligator in the middle of the lake. 

So they paddled towards him.

Stopping several yards away, McDaniel felt they had given the alligator enough space.

But the reptile lowered its head below the surface.

McDaniel and Latham sat tense in their kayak, not able to see anything through the murky water. 

Only the day before, McDaniel’s Spanish professor had been talking to the class about “Lake Placid,” a film about a man-eating crocodile terrorizing a lake in Maine. 

“It wouldn’t have been so traumatic if he hadn’t said that,” McDaniel said.

The theme from “Jaws” played in her head, “There’s an alligator under us somewhere and I don’t know where he is.”

Suddenly, less than a foot away, the alligator popped up. He snapped his jaws and disappeared. 

The girls screamed and paddled away to rejoin their friends in another part of the water.

While she had no desire to repeat the encounter, McDaniel still returned to the lake the next weekend with different friends. 

They teased about not wanting to go with her after the incident, but in the grey weather, they saw no alligators. 

Hord says that if boaters or swimmers do find themselves in the water with an alligator, they should make themselves look as big as possible. 

Splashing, screaming and waving their arms above their head all can intimidate the alligator. 

Opportunistic feeders, alligators look for easy prey so big, noisy swimmers might not be an easy snack. 

However, since alligators can become so fixated on food, it could continue to approach. 

Hord suggests going under water and, if attacked, to keep putting up a struggle.

“Fight as hard as you possibly can,” Hord said. “Many people who fight survive.”

Most of the time, alligators do not want to eat people. 

When they only see a human head above the surface, Hord and other scientists believe the alligators mistake people for smaller animals like opossums. 

Or when humans are in lakes with pets, which resemble the reptiles’ natural prey, an alligator may approach with the intent to snatch the pet but grabs the first thing it reaches.

If residents find an alligator in an unnatural habitat or feel threatened by its presence, they can call the Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 1-866-FWC-GATOR. 

For a brochure on living with alligators, visit http://www.myfwc.com.