I haven’t visited the FWC site in a while but a fellow Floridian fly fisher was kind enough to e-mail me this link. I am posting it here for your information. The more folks that report illegal gator feeders, the less these illegal acts will occur that endanger the lives of others. The FWC does what it can but it can’t do it all without the help of Florida citizens.
Robert,
We went to Hilton Head Island in 1987 & I was AMAZED that people had to be warned how dangerous it is to feed wild animals (Alligators there as well). It just seems so obvious to me that wild animals should not be fed. That act compromises not only OUR safety, but the safety of the animal as well. It is truly sad that adults (SUPPOSEDLY intelligent) cannot figure this out on their own.
Mike
according to the article this guy already had outstanding warrants. So he is not the sort to follow the letter or the spirit of the law. Perhaps he needs to be taken (or sent) swimming in the waters where he was feeding them. That might bring about an epiphany.
The article also stated that folks knew that the one big (12 ft.) gator in the earlier incident that killed the man who had been swimming that canal his entire life was being fed. Obviously no one reported it . That is what is tragic. A life might have been saved.
Jones? and O?Neil?s arrest comes in the wake of an unrelated fatal alligator attack that occurred in nearby Port Charlotte a week earlier. On the evening of July 15, Kevin Albert Murray, 41, of 1763 Stimmel St., North Port was swimming in a canal off the Myakka River when a 12-foot-2-inch alligator attacked and killed him. Residents of the area claimed that alligator had been fed.
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
[This message has been edited by dixieangler (edited 29 July 2005).]
I love gators. Ithink they’re cool animals. Some folks just can’t seem to understand how they can turn an alligator from an animal that scuttles away when a human approaches (this is what they’re supposed to do) to an animal that begins thinking human = food by feeding them. Enjoy gators from a distance, by observation. If your state allows, you can even harvest a good sized one for its meat and hide. Take pictures, whatever, but for cryin’ out loud, don’t feed 'em! It makes them dangerous to every other person who will ever come in contact with that individual gator.
Off the soapbox now. sorry, y’all.
Swamp
Believe it or not, there have been two sizable alligators found in a creek up here in Western NY. How low of temperatures can they tolerate when over wintering? Since someone must have dropped them off (maybe they stocked the whole place and I’ll get by bony legs (shudder) and fat ass wrenched off while wet wading. (shudder shudder shudder)
Gators can’t tolerate severe cold temperatures. They very likely will die from the first severe cold spell. Most likely someone’s abandoned “pets.” I have heard NY City sewers are full of gator “pets” (toilet flushed young gators) that only survive there by the warm underground temperatures. Gators cannot be tamed as “pets” (so folks abandon them) or live indefinately in a severe cold evironment. Miami Metro-Dade is another city full of abandoned and illegal exotic pets that folks sneak in past US Customs and are deadly harmful to native Florida species (there are no natural predators to keep them in check). Some Florida species are being pushed to extinction from aggresive invasive species. The Florida Green Tree Frog is being eaten by the Cuban Frog for just one example. Fortunately, most of those illegal species cannot survive colder temperatures above the southern tip of Florida. I have even heard there are cobras in the Everglades and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it was true.
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
[This message has been edited by dixieangler (edited 30 July 2005).]
. That is what is tragic. A life might have been saved.