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Mon 15 May, 2006 09:47 pm
3 Fatal Gator Attacks in 1 Week Worry Fla.
By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer Mon May 15, 7:27 PM ET
MIAMI - Trapper Todd Hardwick typically gets about four nuisance alligator calls each day, but he is getting 15 now, after an unprecedented burst of three deadly gator attacks on people in a week.
"People are shook up," Hardwick said just before capturing a 9-foot, 4-inch alligator Monday in a residential lake north of Miami. "It's like the citizens of Florida have declared war on alligators. People are really going crazy."
Before the most recent attacks, only 17 deaths had been recorded in Florida since 1948, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Although Florida has never before such a concentration of deaths in so short a time, wildlife officials said there is no pattern or common element to the attacks.
One victim was a jogger whose body was found in a canal in Broward County, on Florida's Atlantic Coast; one was snorkeling in a recreation area near Lake George, in the central part of the state; another was found in a canal about 20 miles north of St. Petersburg, the state's Gulf Coast.
"These are unfortunate, unrelated coincidences," commission spokesman Willie Puz said. "We still caution everyone: Pay attention to your surroundings. Pay attention to what's in the water. Alligators are predators and wild animals that should be treated with respect."
Zack Auspitz said the recent deaths have made them think twice about going into the water. The 12-year-old and his family frequently swam in the Miami-Dade County lake where Hardwick made his capture Monday.
"I think my limitation will be that dock right now," said Auspitz, pointing to a floating wooden dock that used to serve as his diving platform. "I just don't feel secure."
Government researchers estimate there are between 1 million and 2 million alligators in Florida, but there have only been 351 recorded attacks on humans in the past 58 years.
Alligators generally shy away from people and are far less aggressive than related species such as Nile crocodiles, said Kent Vliet, a zoology professor at the University of Florida who specializes in alligators.
"It's a rare event to have an attack. But there's a lot of wetlands in Florida, and there are a lot of alligators in Florida. People spend a lot of time in the water in Florida," Vliet said.
The three attacks came during the peak of alligator mating season, when the animals are moving around in search of the opposite sex. In populous South Florida, lack of rainfall has dried up some wetlands, forcing more alligators to find new homes.
Alligator encounters with humans can also increase as more and more natural habitat is lost to development. The jogger who died was found in an area that was once part of the Everglades and is now home to thousands of suburbanites.
"We are building more and more into wild territories," Puz said.
Alligators are naturally shy, and will avoid humans. The problem is that if humans feed an alligator, he will lose his natural wariness, and might attack. There is a law about feeing alligators in Florida, but I would bet that some people ignore it.
I like to canoe on a lake that is full of alligators. I will "stalk" an alligator, but as soon as I get too close, the animal will submerge.
There are people in waders who fish in the lake right with the alligators, and there never was a problem. Normally alligators feed nocturnally, so it is best to get out of the water before dark.
A flag went up in my head when I saw that attacks occurred on land which was formerly the everglades. It may be that their former prey has reached a level where the alligators had to search for a new source of food.
As Phoenix said the feeding of alligators causes them to associate humans with food. Even feeding them when they're small and "cute" could imprint them. Sitll, any alligator that is over 8 feet might consider humans to be food if they are swimming in the water. You can't expect an alligator to discrimminate between a small human and an otter, for instance, especially considering that the alligator may only see the person's head above the water.
I was staying in Paynes Prairie State Park near Gainesville.There is a small lake there loaded with alligators, and I saw a person water skiing. That's fine so long as you don't fall in the water. I don't know if this is the same lake where the attack took place, but it could be.
I was in Myakka River St. Pk. near Sarasota. They have a lake there saturated with alligators and a platform on the water where locals fish with cane poles. A 12 foot male alligator stayed next to the platform, and the fishermen would tease the animal by dangling a fish from a cane pole near the alligator's head, followed by giving the fish to the alligator. This was usually done as a sort of show for the naive tourists. The alligator came out of the water one day and chased a man, obviously expecting food, and the rangers had to shoot it. In a short time another alligator took the old one's place and the teasing and feeding continued. This is a very dangerous practice and it's not difficult to imagine the alligator rushing up out of the water and grabbing a small child. They have a large number of tourists in that park every winter, and people sometimes underestimate the danger from large alligators.
Now I know where to find Phoenix if I ever feel like stalking her as she is stalking the alligators.
Do be careful when dipping toes in the water.
I once went on this really tacky tour of the Everglades - obviously a tourist trap tour and I didn't realize it. I really wanted to see the Everglades in as much a natural setting as possible, unfortunately for me this was not it. We were on an airboat tour - during the tour we saw raccoons and Pelicans and the token alligator. They fed all the animals of course to get them closer - they even fed the alligator too - guess what they fed it? A marshmallow. The slow moving gator came toward the boat - the tour operator tab it on its head and the thing opened its mouth and they dropped a couple of marshmallows in its mouth.
Most embarassing and tacky way to spend good money.
Phoenix32890 wrote:Quote:I was in Myakka River St. Pk. near Sarasota.
Coluber-That is the place where I canoe!
Myakka is a great place for seeing birds, especially wading birds, osprey, and bald eagles. There is virtually a saturation of alligator territories, which isn't bad in itself, but it sure cuts down on the population of snakes, which I like better that alligators.
I was camping there once, and a family from N. Carolina was next to me. They went canoeing on day and and returning the boys were quite excited but the mother less so. It seems they were paddling close to an island and cut off the retreat of an alligator that was sunning on the island. The alligator charged their canoe in an effort to escape into the water and not as an act of agression. I had the same thing happen to me why canoeing in the Okeefenokee Swamp. The alligator dove under the canoe where I was paddling and its body actually hit the canoe. That taught us to stay away from the land while canoeing.
Tampa is a pretty good place for wildlife too. I was driving on I-75 just north of Tampa and saw three eagles doing courtship acrobatics in the air. I've never seen that before, and I was trying to watch them and drive at the same time, but the traffic was pretty heavy. When isn't it? Another time in the same area, I saw a big flock of wood storks spiraling up in the air. You probably see that sort of thing all the time, lucky you!
I once nearly drove off the road watching a pair of Roseate Spoonbills in the gulleys that border the main drag of my town. I see wood storks all the time. If I go towards the Sunshine Skyway bridge, I see loads of brown pelicans catching their dinner. On the golf course near me, there are usually a pair or two of sand hill cranes, sometimes with chicks.
Florida is a bird watcher's paradise. So many big birds, that stand still so you can watch them!!
I have a solution to the over abundance problem with alligators.
Relocate them to the Rio Grande River between the United States and Mexico!
People just gotta stop attacking them gators.
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