Better never underestimate a gator’s IQ, they will surprise you.
Gators are quite stupid, from what friends in FL tell me. They don’t really have enough brains to conduct complex operations the way mammalian predators do. However, being stupid doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous. They don’t need to be smart, since they’ve already got all the instinctual equipment they need to catch food (coloration, aquatic capability, inescapable bite etc).