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gator attacks

There have been three fatal gator attacks in Florida in one week.  We normally only have abour one incident a year.  This one was in Fort Lauderdale (Sunrise) just the other day.  I am very familiar with this canal.  The bank is made up of sharp loose crushed coral and very steep.  The woman was jogging on a paved jogging trail on the south side. A couple of gator trappers theorize that this was a very purposeful attack and that the gator climbed up the bank and hid in some bushes to ambush her.
The gator they caught that had eaten tennis balls and a football must have been really hungry.
 

http://www.local10.com/news/9205990/detail.html
 
Well, this is what happens. They pave over habitat to make subdivisions and condo, and wonder why there are suddenly these gators wandering around and taking up residence in the canals. People *feed* the darn things, causing them to lose their fear of humans, and then act shocked when a now-fearless 12-foot half-ton dinosaur-cousin kills someone.

Simply put, this is what you get when you overdevelop a wilderness with large native predators and insert people whose idea of nature comes from Disney films. Nature reminds us that we're still just another part of the food chain, and not always at the top. If the authorities would at least *educate* people who move to FL and live there about simple facts like "the giant toothy things really are dangerous", this wouldn't happen nearly as often.

Mokele
 
Cars kill 500 pedestrians in Florida every year. So it might be safer to walk through the ditches if it means being further from the drivers.
 
Holy Amos Moses!

Good comments by all. I find alligators delicious and I am sure it's vs vs, but egards what a way to go.....bit by bit.....
 
lol....a lilla salt.....a lilla peppa.......a lilla grilla and mmmmmm tastes like chiken
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can yah tell im a member of PETA?




















































People for the Eating of Tastey Animals
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Steve Irwin wouldn't be happy with you!

Why? It's not like he cares about the animals. He may claim it, but his horribly deficient, unsafe, neglectful, showboating handling tells the real story.

Mokele
 
Alligators have a natural fear of humans. Under natural conditions they will not attack a human, they will always run the other way, unless they are defending a nest. Crocodiles are the ones that sees us as prey.

I don't know all the facts in this case, but from what I read I can see clear reasons for this attack. First, one of the the gators had tennis balls and a football. I would bet that they were thrown at the gators by kids. I would also bet that with people living this close to them they have been fed by the locals and tourists. So now the gators associates humans with food. Once this connection is made within their brains, it's only a matter of time before there is an attack.
There is also a possibility that it was not a gator but an American crocodile. They are native to south Florida, but very rare.
 
  • #10
actually the american croc really doesnt care for ppl and doesnt do well in areas with alot of ppl. gators will take ppl, like it was said its rare but not unheard of. gotta remember that the gator population is on the rebound and is doing quite well. so there are alot more gators out there now than 25 years ago
 
  • #11
Well, someone/something's got to reclaim the Earth.
 
  • #12
According to our local news:
1) The woman jogger was seen earlier by passerbys dangling her feet in the canal.
2) The woman who was killed near Ocala was swimming in shallow water near the shore of the lake where there was much vegetation and many alligators.
3) The woman who was "killed" near St. Petersburg was had been in the water 3 or 4 days before she was found and could have been scavenged by gators.

There are currently about 2 million alligators in Florida and they estimate the population of crocodiles is between 3 and 5 hundred.

I go hiking frequently and am by the water a lot and am proud to say that I have never been eaten by a gator, if people would use a bit of common sense these things would happen much less frequently. By the way, the local news is also trotting out the looneys that are demanding that all the alligators in the local lakes be killed.
And for those of you who might have missed it, about 3 weeks ago the Grand cypress Golf resort in orland had 2 red shouldered hawks shot by the federal fish and wildlife people who also destroyed the nest and eggs - because they were swooping down and scaring the golfers....welcome to Florida.
 
  • #13
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I would also bet that with people living this close to them they have been fed by the locals and tourists. So now the gators associates humans with food. Once this connection is made within their brains, it's only a matter of time before there is an attack.

Hmm, time to stop feeding the birds then. I don't want them turning on me...
 
  • #14
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]And for those of you who might have missed it, about 3 weeks ago the Grand cypress Golf resort in orland had 2 red shouldered hawks shot by the federal fish and wildlife people who also destroyed the nest and eggs - because they were swooping down and scaring the golfers....welcome to Florida.

I dunno, I don't think a pair of birds and their nest can quite compare to "OMG! we found a 6 flies of a species that might damage the citrus crops! Quick, spray all of central Florida with a toxic insecticide that can peel the paint off cars every night for 3 months!"

Because we all know that vast quantities of insecticide won't have *any* negative environmental effects at all....

Mokele
 
  • #15
The gator that ate the girl in Lauderdale was finally captured and killed.  The stomach contained the girls arms.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]The woman jogger was seen earlier by passerbys dangling her feet in the canal.
I highly doubt that.  Climbing down that bank would be a painful experience...but not quite as painful as what really happened.  If someone was on the jogging path, they could not have seen her anyway.  According to local athourities, this was a hungry gator that was out hunting a meal.

Yep! Gators are tasty Tamlin.  Many restaurants down here have them on the menu.  Do you suppose this was a "Don't get mad...get even" sort of thing?
 
  • #16
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Climbing down that bank would be a painful experience...but not quite as painful as what really happened. If someone was on the jogging path, they could not have seen her anyway.

I'm more inclined towards a stupid human clambering down a painful incline and dangling her feet in than a large gator hunting on land, especially if the incline was as steep as you say. Such terrestrial hunting is rare in crocodilians and almost unheard of in gators.

Human stupidity is always the preferred explanation.

Mokele
 
  • #17
Well, Henry, people do have a bad habit of thinking they are above the "lower" animals, and nothing bad could possibly happen to them. Too bad they missed Bio Sci and Zoology. Lower or Higher animal be darned. In their world, on their turf, you're lunch!
 
  • #18
[b said:
Quote[/b] (buster1 @ May 15 2006,7:23)]And for those of you who might have missed it, about 3 weeks ago the Grand cypress Golf resort in orland had 2 red shouldered hawks shot by the federal fish and wildlife people who also destroyed the nest and eggs - because they were swooping down and scaring the golfers....welcome to Florida.
Hey... they shouldn't have attacked during my backswing.
 
  • #19
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]And for those of you who might have missed it, about 3 weeks ago the Grand cypress Golf resort in orland had 2 red shouldered hawks shot by the federal fish and wildlife people who also destroyed the nest and eggs - because they were swooping down and scaring the golfers....welcome to Florida

That reminds of the time several years ago when Fabio was visiting Kings Dominion Theme Park down the road. He was on some ride (roller coaster I think) and a goose flew into his face and broke his nose. (haha...sorry...but its kinda funny). Anyway, after that I heard they paid someone to continually chase the geese out of the pond there. I mean, really...that was such a freak accident. How many nose-breaking geese accidents to they expect in a decade??
 
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