[mlulu23]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

For the second one I linked to MD DNR decided not to release the location so "people wouldn't bother it". Well, that's ok I guess but if I'm going to do some duck hunting in one of the marshes there, especially the September season, it would be nice to know if I have to watch out for a large reptile with a couple hundred teeth.

I haven't hunted over there for a couple years now.

You make a very valid point. I think knowing how they are expanding I would keep an eye out for them everywhere I go anyway just in case. It's a very large area, and some could slip by unnoticed. That would go for a lot of places, now that I'm paranoid, lol.

[rrampage]

Originally Posted by mlulu23

You make a very valid point. I think knowing how they are expanding I would keep an eye out for them everywhere I go anyway just in case. It's a very large area, and some could slip by unnoticed. That would go for a lot of places, now that I'm paranoid, lol.

Fortunately, they are just as scared of you as you are them. Any aggression is self defense.

In my travels, I've wondered across many areas where they don't even waste time posting up signs. It's just a given that they are there and attacks on people are very rare. Usually, they just bathe in the sun during the day and then hit the water to drift at night. Their eyes are visible above the water surface at night. You just want to have some good flashlights on hand if you're hitting the waters.

They aren't overly thick in most of their habitat. They are pretty thick in parts of Florida for sure (as well as some other hot spots in the U.S). In many parts of Florida, it's pretty much "any body of water is game for them". Most other areas aren't really like that though, in reality. For example, I know they are in South Texas, but most people don't even think twice about it since they rarely encounter them. They really wouldn't come to one's mind in the San Antonio area, for instance.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by rrampage

Fortunately, they are just as scared of you as you are them. Any aggression is self defense.

In my travels, I've wondered across many areas where they don't even waste time posting up signs. It's just a given that they are there and attacks on people are very rare. Usually, they just bathe in the sun during the day and then hit the water to drift at night. Their eyes are visible above the water surface at night. You just want to have some good flashlights on hand if you're hitting the waters.

They aren't overly thick in most of their habitat. They are pretty thick in parts of Florida for sure (as well as some other hot spots in the U.S). In many parts of Florida, it's pretty much "any body of water is game for them". Most other areas aren't really like that though, in reality. For example, I know they are in South Texas, but most people don't even think twice about it since they rarely encounter them. They really wouldn't come to one's mind in the San Antonio area, for instance.

If you are walking your dog you need to know.

[mlulu23]

Originally Posted by rrampage

Fortunately, they are just as scared of you as you are them. Any aggression is self defense.

Or hunger.

[mlulu23]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

If you are walking your dog you need to know.

Absolutely, no splashing in the ponds for either the pup, or the kiddos. Grandma either.

[Suesbal]

Someone call Amos Moses.

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by mlulu23

Or hunger.

Bingo.
It is most likely they have mistaken you for their next meal.
(Or, you may be their next meal, depending on how fast you think...)

Originally Posted by Suesbal

Someone call Amos Moses.

Or professor twist:

I give you now Professor Twist,
A conscientious scientist,
Trustees exclaimed, "He never bungles!"
And sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
"You mean," he said, "a crocodile."

Sorry: couldn't resist the humor.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

I spent several years of my life living in the Glades and working/living with gators. (As in, they would come into my "yard", not that they were pets). When I finally moved, it was a relief to be able to take my dogs into a lake, or run next to bodies of water without worry.

One thing that still has not left me is scanning the water, and every once in awhile, I'll see something in the water, and have to remind myself that there's no gators here.

Or so I thought.

Apparently, according to media, NC does have gators. According to them, it's mainly the east side. It can get very cold here, so I was a bit shocked to read that. If the state always had this type of "winter" we're having now, I would have not been as surprised.

Gators can make it through a bit of time with cold weather, but IL? OH? Further up the east coast? That's not natural. These guys are some of the laziest animals, ever, so making extra effort to keep warm is not very alligator like.

[matisse12]

Originally Posted by rrampage

Fortunately, they are just as scared of you as you are them. Any aggression is self defense.

In my travels, I've wondered across many areas where they don't even waste time posting up signs. It's just a given that they are there and attacks on people are very rare. Usually, they just bathe in the sun during the day and then hit the water to drift at night. Their eyes are visible above the water surface at night. You just want to have some good flashlights on hand if you're hitting the waters.

They aren't overly thick in most of their habitat. They are pretty thick in parts of Florida for sure (as well as some other hot spots in the U.S). In many parts of Florida, it's pretty much "any body of water is game for them". Most other areas aren't really like that though, in reality. For example, I know they are in South Texas, but most people don't even think twice about it since they rarely encounter them. They really wouldn't come to one's mind in the San Antonio area, for instance.

So the two-year old child who was wading in the lake at Disneyland where an alligator horrifically grabbed him, carried him off, and killed him.....was self-defense....

and the happenings where people are walking around ponds and an alligator jumps out of the water, grabs the human or the pet, are self-defense.

If you do a google search, there are attacks on humans by alligators - but people are usually unaware just how many there are and they do not stay away from walking along small bodies of water .......in Florida and parts of the South. Defenders will always say the numbers are not high enough to be concerned about.

Making you unafraid of alligators or not being cautious because you think there is an equivalent fear that "alligators are just as afraid of humans as humans are of them" is not wise behavior around bodies of water where alligators are or could be.

[rrampage]

You should always be aware of your surroundings. And it is self defense.