Gator! Florida attacks should serve as wake up call
Last summer there were three fatal alligator attacks in Florida .
The attacks were all on women and are part of 17 confirmed fatal attacks on people in 58 years. That means there are three less lives and three families crushed due to the actions of a highly effective reptilian predator and probably due to the careless actions of humans.
Why all of the attacks all of a sudden?
This is breeding season and alligators are a lot more active now than during other times of the year, but there is more to the story than that.
The Gulf region has been heading toward a crisis level with alligator populations over the last decade and what happened in Florida is a sign of things to come from Tallahassee to Texas if we maintain the status quo of dealing with these potentially dangerous reptiles.
This is a simple thing to figure out actually.
Alligator populations are increasing at the same time human populations are increasing along coastal areas. That means there are more chances of humans and alligators meeting in the alligator’s natural environment where they are at the top of the food chain.
In Jefferson, Orange and Chambers Counties alone there are an estimated 283,000 alligators according to the latest surveys. Think about that for a second.
That means there are 30,00 more alligators in those three counties than there are people in Jefferson County and three times more than the human population of Orange County.
State officials realize there is some potential danger to this and have been diligent this spring about educating the public about the dangers of feeding alligators.
Any time you feed a predator you are conditioning them to look to humans for food and sometimes they start looking at them as the food.
If you happen to see someone feeding an alligator let them know they are putting themselves and others at risk.
Remind them that if a game warden catches them in the act, they can get a stiff fine.
Since 2003, it has been a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $25 to $500 to feed a free-ranging alligator in Texas .
The price of breaking this law could be a lot greater than any fine if the gator you are feeding attacks a human. I know I would not want that on my conscience.
Near my home in West Orange I see large alligators in canals around neighborhoods all the time. A few years ago I was regularly seeing a 10-footer in the gully where I used to fish as a kid.
One day there were two little girls fishing there that could not have been older than 10. They had little Zebco rod and reels in their hands and their feet dangling over the water. I stopped to tell them to be careful because there was a big alligator hanging around.
Their reply?
“We feed him marshmallows.”
One of the women killed last week in Florida was last reported dangling her feet over the water and as far as we know she was not feeing an alligator at the time she was attacked.
I remember telling those girls not to feed that alligator and that it could jump up and grab them from the bridge.
Whether or not my works sunk in or not, I will never know, but I do know that thinking back to that day I am glad I did not have to write a story about a local alligator attack on a child.
And I hope I never have to write such a report.
Photo by Chester Moore, Jr.
However with most kids getting their wildlife education from television programs that humanize animals and a growing proportion of our population being raised in the city the potential for a fatality is growing daily.
Alligators are a wonderful asset to our region as they draw in tourism, provide recreation during the hunting season and fill a valuable niche in nature.
It is an amazing accomplishment of conservation that we have record high alligator numbers in the year 2008. Just 35 years ago, the government considered them endangered. We are at the point however where humans and alligators will be mixing more than ever and that is not such a good thing.
We certainly should not be afraid of going swimming, skiing or fishing, but we should all be aware that we have hundreds of thousands of predators in our area that occasionally attack people. We have never had a confirmed alligator fatality in Texas , but we are certainly not immune to such an incident.
Safety should come first on any outdoors excursion especially those made in alligator country.
In the future, we as a community will have to make some decisions regarding alligators and humans. I hope we err on the side of human lives, not those of reptiles.
Alligators have their place, but people should always come first.
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