Never saw one of those critters when I lived in Florida.
I did see gators and used to play with one. We had a pond in our yard with a baby gator. There was a big live oak next to the pond with a branch that hung over the pond. I took a fishing poll with a ping pong ball tied to it up there. I would climb the tree and cast the ball in the water, reel it in and the gator would chase it. I used to do that for hours...it was so quiet and peaceful out there.
Back in the early to mid 80’s, hundreds of dead dillos could be spotted along I-95 and I-75, they suddenly died out and my son told about a year ago he saw one dead, which is 35 years later.