A Bad Season of Alligator Attacks!

By: Glenn Wilsey, Sr.

The alligator mating season of 2006, has been the worst ever for deadly alligator attacks.

There have been 3 fatalities due to alligator attacks this year and all I hear is, "WHY?" "What is so different about this year?" Well, I’ve been listening to all of the experts give their reasons why. Before I go any further, I want to tell the family members who have lost loved ones to an alligator attack, that my sympathies and my prayers go out to each of you. My web staff and I pray that no one else has to endure the heartache and pain that you have had to go through. I wish there were something we could do to help ease the pain. Perhaps, it might help to explain that the attacks were not personal, the alligators were not acting any differently towards your loved ones than they would towards any other prey or predator that invades their territory.

The local Florida news stations have been having a field day, doing their best to sensationalize the recent attacks because that’s their job. They rightly point out that there were only 17 deaths due to alligator attacks since 1947 and then, suddenly, 3 in a week. They make it sound like the alligators are coming out of the swamp to kill us all. It might make an interesting movie, but it’s not really the truth. If we examine the facts, those alligators acted the same way that any alligator would act in the same conditions. The conditions I am referring to are the right combination to whip up a "perfect storm" of alligator attacks but they are rare in this combination and will soon end when the conditions change.

On Wednesday May 18^th, Neil Cavuto of The Fox News Channel asked me to come on his show to discuss the attacks and to answer the question, "Are the rash of attacks due to population growth in Florida?" I had to answer yes in response to that question. There are thousands of people moving to Florida every year and we have to give them a place to live. I didn’t have a lot of time to explain the situation or I would have. I wish I could have told Neil Cavuto and America and the victims’ family members that there are 3 reasons why this year was so different from the last 60 years. The combination of conditions that led up to the perfect storm of alligator attacks includes:

# 1, Human Population Growth.

# 2, Alligator Mating Season and

# 3, Drought.

Let me explain first, the alligator attacks in relation to human population growth. Thousands of people move to Florida each year and it’s not hard to figure out where they want to live. North Florida and Central Florida are way different than South Florida. From Jacksonville in the north part of Florida, down to Orlando and a little south to lake Okeechobee, there are wide-open spaces to build on. From lake Okeechobee to the north, people can build houses from one side of the state to the other. These areas consist of open grassland prairie, tree forests and a lot of swampland. People like to build their houses close to lakes. Even if people have a house in the forest, they like to picnic at the many lakes Florida has to offer. Residential communities are often built in one area but these communities are often several miles apart from each other.

South Florida is totally different. Residential communities have to be built solid next to each other. I recently took a Google earth satellite shot of south Florida from outer space.

In the past when people would ask me, how much of the everglades has been lost, I would just say about 30% boy was I wrong. In red, I colored in the sugar farms south of lake Okeechobee. Then in yellow I colored in the housing development. I was shocked to see, we have lost about 55% of the everglades. If this keeps up we could have "NO" everglades in the next hundred years. With all these people near lakes and canals, the percentage of accidental alligator bites will increase for sure. Alligators are territorial, when the heavy equipment shows up to start all the building the alligators will move out of the way, but that is their territory, so they won’t go far. An alligator has a built in GPS (global positioning system). So you can relocate an alligator, but it will show back up sooner or later. Housing developments are completed so fast, to keep up with the demand, that an alligator will not have to wait long to return to its home. The developers have been so kind to renovate the alligators home with wonderfully serene lakes, canals and grassy yards, ready to be used as sun decks for alligators. Too bad if someone else lives there now. Especially so if they think the alligator is "cute" so they start to feed it. That is essentially a death sentence for the alligator because an alligator that has been fed is no longer afraid of people and will eventually attack someone. Alligators are not cute and they are not pets. They act only on instinct just like their dinosaur ancestors. Alligators will bite the hand that feeds them. Alligators will bite the hand that feeds them. Alligators will bite the hand that feeds them. I’m not saying that the alligators in the recent attacks were all previously fed by people, just that when alligators are declared a nuisance that is usually the cause. With so many people around, it is certain that alligators and people are going to meet. It’s not necessarily bad when alligators lose their fear of people and get curious. It’s certainly not bad when people lose their fear of alligators and get curious. The problem starts when people decide the alligator needs something to eat. I have lost count of how many times I’ve said "AN ALLIGATOR WILL BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS IT"

Most humans have this "want" to give wild animals a treat. I myself love to interact with wild animals and there are some animals that I have no problem feeding. My parents taught me to interact with animals, but they also taught me common sense. The rules were simple, they said never feed an animal that is as big as you and has lots of teeth.

Our second point to consider is, it is Alligator mating season. Alligators are territorial, one big male alligator, a 9 footer, can own a territory of about 2 square miles and could have about 10 to 15 females in his territory along with their children. A male alligator of 12 to 14 feet long could have up to 3 square miles of territory and have many more females in his territory. A big male alligator does not like to share his territory with other males. Alligator mating season is the month of May, give or take a couple of weeks. He will not put up with any other male in his territory at this time. He will patrol and he will defend his territory at all cost. Alligators are lazy animals and for the rest of the year, he will stay close to his den. If he does go on patrol he has to steer away from the females. The female alligator will take a small territory within the male’s large territory. When mother alligators are nesting they become very protective (read that as aggressive) of their nests and of their offspring. Small male alligators have to steer away from big alligators. If the alligator is 3 feet or under, it could be eaten by a 9 foot or larger alligator. At about 8 or 9 feet long, males have a need to find a territory of their own. During mating season, the big males will chase the small males out of their territory. This is why most of the wondering alligators captured in folk’s yards, swimming pools or the mall parking lot are 6 to 8 feet long.

The third point we need to examine regarding the alligator attacks is the drought.

About every 4 to 7 years we will endure a drought. That’s when the dry season lasts longer than the wet season. Basically, in South Florida we don’t have a winter. We have spring and summer. January is when the water level is at its highest. We may have about 3 feet of water in the everglades then. By June or July we may have only 2 or 3 inches of water. Alligators move into each other’s territory just to find some deeper water where they can find some food and safety. Of course, both food and safety become scarce with this much competition in the remaining waterways and this is when you find the smaller alligators wondering across roadways and in parking lots and in backyard swimming pools. They are looking for some water that isn’t so crowded. The crowding makes them bad tempered. Especially during mating season. When we are in a drought cycle, the water levels start getting low around the end of February and keep dropping until the rainy season finally starts. The water levels from Lake Okeechobee, south have been kept artificially low by man as well, the water having been pumped out of the canals and waterways in anticipation of the heavy summer rains and even hurricanes so that storm water drained from the city streets has somewhere to go so that the taxpayers don’t complain. There will be fewer and fewer suitable water holes for the gators until the rains return as we enter the summer rainy season. This is nature’s way. The alligators nest during the dry season so their nests are out of the water. An alligator nest is a mound of rotting plant matter that incubates the eggs buried in it and if the temperature isn’t right or it gets too wet, the baby alligators in the eggs will not develop and the eggs and the nest itself will rot. The baby alligators hatch during the rainy season so there will be plenty of ponds and water holes for them to live in. Mother alligators don’t sit on the nest like birds do but they will be very close by and they don’t like anyone getting too close. Anyway, during a drought, alligators are known to travel more than 25 miles to find water. In the past they may have been to an area that was open forest or swamp and now it has been developed. The alligator remembers finding water in this direction before and probably doesn’t even notice that he is now walking through a neighborhood of people’s homes. He’s just going to were he remembers there was water. The alligator does not mind the new lake or canal that is now in his path and if someone has a nice yard for the alligator to rest on next to that lake or canal they like it even more.

Put all 3 of these conditions together at the same time and many bad things could happen. As I said, things will get back to normal when any of those conditions change and we are starting to get some rain so I believe the alligators will again spread out and the number of attacks will subside.

Still, until water levels do get back to normal, the combination of the three conditions goes on. An alligator seeking territory or water or a mate could show up anywhere, including, your backyard, a parking lot or your swimming pool. When this happens, it’s not going to be good for the alligator or the people who may not appreciate their new neighbor. Alligator trappers from a private, nuisance animal control company may be called out. When the trappers do show up, they tell everyone that the alligator is going to be relocated. Most of the time, the alligators are relocated to an alligator processing plant to be killed. This is a sad fact. Alligators will return to familiar territory which is where they were just removed from so they can’t really be returned to the wild and a wild alligator does not like to be around other alligators so they can’t be put in a pen at an alligator display. If they are put in a pen with captive, usually farmed alligators, the wild alligators fight the more docile captive gators. Captive alligators have never had to defend a territory and have become used to being in close quarters with lots of other alligators. Put a wild alligator in with them and he may fight with the others all the time because he is trying to establish his own territory. The more they fight, the more wounds they receive and the more scars they develop from those wounds. The more scars they have, the less the skin is worth for handbags, boots, etc. so the operators of those alligator farms and zoos don’t usually want wild alligators.

Two years ago, I wrote another story about alligator attacks. If you click the link, it will take you to the story. www.aaof.us/09.04.htm If you found this story interesting or useful, I’m sure you will also enjoy my past story if you haven’t already seen it.

THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!! For coming to read my story this month.

If you are a teacher and need to use this story in a class, just e-mail me and I will give you permission. If you are a student and need to use this story for an assignment or a better grade, just e-mail me and I will give you permission to use it.

Remember "nature rules"

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