[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by 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.

Ones in the Ohio river likely released there. It's too cold around there.

However, those once in a blue moon reports of gators in and around the Missouri Bootheel area are probably accurate around the St. Francis river. A few gators spotted in Reelfoot lake before. If that's the case, they're very likely on the MO side since that's just a few miles away. Places like Caruthersville climate can support them due to the mild night time winter low temps. Wouldn't shock me before the 1800s there were a few gators in southeast MO and northwest TN before swamps were drained for farming.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/n...66456fa69.html

This article is a bit overboard. Will never see them in the MO river in central Missouri, but probably could see them up around Scott and Mississippi counties in Missouri in small numbers eventually.

If gators were found near NJ many moons ago IMO they were probably up into southeast MO. Probably were gators in SEMO ages ago in small numbers.

One sighting around Cape in the MS river in the early 50s sounds like it was one that simply swam up the river.

https://www.semissourian.com/blogs/f...ue/entry/46708

1922 a few spotted as well in the summer near Cape.

[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by matisse12

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.

Alligators are atually pretty docile. In Florida they are everywhere. If they were really aggressive there would be a lot more deaths than there actually are. Just about every apartment house down there has a pond with a resident gator. Heck the University of Florida's married student housing is right across the street from gator infested Lake Alice. And across that street and next to the shore are picnic tables where Gators will swim up and watch you eat hoping you will feed them.

Gators eat little kids and dogs when they can because they are hungry and they don't see them as a threat. Usually adults are ok unless they are in the water with the gator. But a lot of times you can be within 30 or 40 feet of them and they won't do a darn thing but sit there. There are videos of cats going up and slapping gators in the face with their claws and shows the gators backing down.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojurByhhX8A

But yeah, it's best to stay clear of shoreline and give yourself 10 yards or so.

[SnazzyB]

I spent my childhood in Titusville, FL. All the grownups talked about gators being everywhere (this would've been early to mid 60's) but I only ever saw a wild gator once, on Merritt Island.

Us kids used to walk down to a local pond (we called it Blue Hole) to go fishing. I always understood that there was an Alligator Snapping Turtle in the pond, but my brother told me a couple of years ago, that there was an actual alligator in it.

Maybe I misunderstood, and there wasn't a turtle, or he misunderstood, or maybe there was both. I don't know. But I never saw a gator.

On the other hand, every time I've been to Louisiana, I have seen alligators.

[baileychic74]

They're in Dagmar, every time someone's pet is found and taken away they rehome it to Dagmar.

[Veritas Vincit]

Originally Posted by rrampage

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

Alligators are opportunistic predators that will feed on large mammals which present themselves as realistic prey in their environment. That could be someone's dog, your 90 year old granny, a child or a homeless woman.


I'm not passing judgment on them - they are animals so morals/ethics are meaningless to them - but that's what they are and one would be a fool to discount their potential for aggression.

[baileychic74]

They're in Dagmar, every time someone's pet is found and taken away they rehome it to Dagmar.