Posted on 06/23/2025 6:08:07 AM PDT by V_TWIN
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – According to data, Florida is home to the second-largest number of alligators in the United States, falling about 700,000 gators behind Louisiana.
But that still doesn’t make it any less shocking when one of the large reptiles shows up on your property and appears to be using your backyard pool to cool off from the intense summer heat.
Well, according to a Ponte Vedra Beach resident, that’s exactly what happened when he woke up on Sunday morning.
Edward McClamma sent pictures and video to News4JAX on Sunday of an alligator in his pool, showing the gator swimming around before eventually resting on the pool’s entry steps.
(Excerpt) Read more at news4jax.com ...
There’s nothing at all unusual about this in Florida. When you take the road to Ponte Vedra from A1A there is an area on your right that has thick bushes and a lagoon....hell, maybe its fresh water but anyway, there’s a little body of water there. No doubt that’s where the Gator came from. Ponte Vedra is just a few blocks wide at the widest and its only a little 2 lane road the Gator would have to cross to get there.
Oh and as always, GO GATORS!!!!
Over the years I’ve been asked by people who don’t live here why I don’t have a pool and or a boat.....my answer is always the same....”I don’t need those things because I know people that have boats and pools....and swimming in the ocean is free. 🙂
“Would your dog like a swimming lesson?”
No doubt. My bro in law has a killer pool. I bring the ribs and sausages and cook them up. Pretty much every weekend in the summer. He supplies the pool for the kids. We are both happy with this.
Have seen videos of them climbing chain-link fences. Worrisome!
Long before man was on earth....
Gators crocs and sharks have been around for 200 million years. The dinosaurs died but these three survived.
We escaped to FL 20 yrs ago. About 2 weeks after the move the hubs and I took our bikes (motorcycles) out to a popular restaurant on one of the keys. Coming back, as we’re rounding a corner the hubs in front motioned for me to slow down. We both stopped and when I looked in front of him I thought to myself, ‘Why would someone throw a palm tree across the road?’, until the ‘palm tree’ got up and walked the rest of the way across the road. LMAO, my first encounter with an alligator...welcome to FL, LOL.
I had a similar situation a few years back in the spring.
I opened the front door and there was a mama snapping turtle sitting on the front step. Which means she had climbed up two steps to get there.
She had been a been around the year prior and dug a hole on the side of our house to lay eggs in.
I am up hill from a good sized brook about 15’ across.
However, my house is up hill in elevation 40’ and about 200’ from this brook. So, she had to go uphill, cross the road and come up my 150’ driveway before getting to my front step.
Snapping turtle is tasty fried.
As a kid, my older relatives would catch them in a pond we would sometimes swim in.
I live on a lake that is about 3 miles across. Lots of alligators. My house is about 100 feet from the water and the garage faces away from the lake.
So I have heard! Probably tastes like gator...or...chicken!
Speaking of turtles.
A stupid liberal woman posted recently on the local town Facebook page that she had stopped on route 101 in NH to pick up a turtle and move it across the road.
Route 101 is the main east/west road in the state. About half is actually divided highway/interstate. The section she stopped on is posted 50 MPH. She is lucky she or no one else was killed. I could not believe it when I read it. She could have caused a serious accident. Yet, there were many other stupid liberals commending her for stopping to help the poor turtle cross the road.
I am an outdoorsman and a true conservationist unlike the liberals who just put own a show. I’ve encountered gators snakes bears and enjoy their beauty unless in harms way. I tell people to stay out of harms way be vigilant and just let them be and do their thing. That being said. Doesn’t hurt to be armed. 😎
We get snaping turtles in our yard every year. I once saw a teenage girl stop in the road to help one cross. She tried to nudge it from behind wearing flip-flops. Talk about stupid...
Of course not! The Florida alligators are chasing because you are taunting them by waving the dead cat.
( The Louisiana alligators are trying to eat the dead cat. )
The real question, to me anyway, is would she have done that before the social media era, when she couldn’t do her virtue signaling narcissistic bs.
Had an 8 footer under a RV on some acrerage I own, 1/2 mile east of Brazos River south of Houston a week ago
In Florida any body of water just might have alligators.
I went to high school near here. There was a deep canal between my HS and the JH and elementary schools. You could see the gators laying beside the canals. I saw a 4-5 foot gator once. You could see their heads floating in the water hyacinth.
In the local paper there were always stories warning about gators taking pets.
Beachside HS? Fletcher?
I attended Sandalwood from 7th-12th back when high schools were Jr./Sr.
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