Posted on 05/17/2006 12:08:01 PM PDT by presidio9
Worried callers overwhelmed the state's nuisance alligator hot line Monday as the national media seized on the news that three women had likely met their deaths in the reptiles' jaws in less than a week.
The outcry started Wednesday when a 9-foot gator pulled 28-year-old jogger Yovy Suarez Jimenez into a Broward County canal. Trappers found Suarez's arms in the gator's belly when they captured it Saturday.
On Sunday, friends and family pried the body of 23-year-old snorkeler Annemarie Campbell from an alligator's jaws in a lake south of Gainesville, and officials recovered the mauled body of 43-year-old Judy Cooper from a Pinellas County canal. A preliminary autopsy report showed that an alligator played "some part" in Cooper's death.
The attacks could bring the total alligator-related deaths recorded to only 20 since record-keeping started in the 1940s.
The deaths sparked rumor and conjecture. Suarez's photogenic face flashed on and off CNN Monday. Some radio talk shows went so far as to say the alligator chased her down as she jogged.
That was not the case. Suarez was attacked close to the canal and was not dragged from the jogging path, authorities said.
Alligators have not announced open season on humans, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials stressed. Despite the weeklong surge in the number of fatal encounters, alligators are attacking with no greater frequency.
"There is no reason to suspect anything unusual is going on," said biologist Lindsey Hord, statewide coordinator for nuisance alligators. "There's been a spike in complaints with the publicity around these fatalities."
In nearly all fatal attacks, humans either wander or plunge unaware into the alligators' turf, authorities said. Authorities warned people to take caution around fresh water, where alligators are most comfortable. Most attacks since the 1940s, including the three latest, occurred in or close to canals, lakes and streams where alligators live.
Despite the attention, the state tourism agency, Visit Florida, did not report growing concern from visitors or travel agencies. Officials there directed calls to the fish and wildlife commission.
"Our concern is for the victims and the families of the victims," Communications Director Vanessa Welter said. "It's important for visitors to remember that alligators are predators. Normally they don't bother human beings. But every county in Florida has alligators, and the potential is always there."
Hundreds of calls
Hord's office had fielded a nonstop stream of 206 calls by 4:35 p.m. Monday. The office issued 191 permits to trap nuisance alligators.
A recording directed callers to a voice mailbox, which was full. The office fixed the problem by the end of the day, and the hot line, (866) FWC-GATOR (392-4286), opened again.
Some callers had panicked after hearing about the attacks, Hord said. Others had planned to call about nuisance alligators anyway. One caller wanted to make sure the commission didn't intend to start a "witch hunt." That was unusual, Hord said — the hot line for alligator complaints usually doesn't field calls from alligator apologists.
"We're treating them no differently than if they had called two weeks ago," Hord said.
The alligator must meet nuisance criteria for the fish and wildlife commission to send out a trapper. It must be 4 feet or longer and must pose a threat to people or property, which includes pets. The trapper checks to make sure the caller isn't complaining about an alligator on a neighbor's property, as sometimes happens.
"We're very careful about that," Hord said. "Some people like to live with alligators. But we're not going to mandate that to people."
Alligators are on the move now, at the peak of both mating season and the dry season, when they're looking for water and reptilian companionship. The hot line typically fields more calls this time of year, but that doesn't mean more alligators have become nuisances. And it doesn't mean the alligators are more aggressive. Most attacks actually occur in July.
"If you're looking out your kitchen window and you see an alligator, you don't necessarily need to call us," Hord said. "If you have small children or dogs, that's when it becomes an issue."
After they catch and remove a nuisance alligator, trappers usually kill it. They receive $30 for each alligator caught, and they can make more money by selling the alligator.
Nuisance alligators can't be moved to greener pastures. They'll threaten another alligator's territory, and their finely tuned homing instincts could take them right back to the pond from which they were removed.
As property development has crept steadily westward, toward the Everglades, alligators haven't left. The adaptable animals simply moved from marshes to canals and golf-course lakes. As Florida's population continues to swell, people and alligators have had more opportunities for contact.
Following their natural instincts, they have preyed on the family dog and, occasionally, the family.
"We continue to encroach on their habitat," senior wildlife biologist Laura Brandt said. "Then we're surprised when they come in our back yard."
Give alligators wide berth
The alligators aren't going anywhere, experts say. We have to learn to live with them.
At the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge west of Boynton Beach, officials recently built a 200-foot fishing pier to keep alligators away from anglers. The refuge is home to the densest population of alligators south of Lake Okeechobee, and they had taken to leaping out of the water after hooked fish, sending people on the canal bank scrambling.
The pier has proved popular since it opened last month, refuge manager Mark Musaus said.
With the same intention of preventing alligator-human conflict, the fish and wildlife commission has established 263 "open harvest" areas, where a trapper with a permit can take as many alligators as he can find. Palm Beach County has eight such areas, typically near boat ramps, parks and homes.
While an alligator usually will shy away from a human, if it's large and hungry, it might see a person as prey. Smaller alligators won't hesitate to prey on small dogs and cats. Alligators between 8 and 10 feet long are usually heavy enough to take down a person.
The alligators most likely to come in contact with people — the ones swimming in canals — are younger males kicked out of the marsh by larger, territorial males during mating season, said Brandt, of the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. Water becomes scarce, and hungry young alligators crowd the deep canals.
Feeding poses problems
While experts stress that an alligator that has never seen a human might not hesitate to attack one, they acknowledge that feeding alligators causes the animals to lose some of their wariness around people. The reptiles come to associate people with food. Despite their thumb-sized brains, they still can learn.
"The alligator is looking for something to eat," Brandt said. "It doesn't know where a handout stops and a hand begins."
As a college student, Brandt worked in a lab with juvenile alligators. One of her jobs was to grind meat for their meals. The alligators came to associate the clanking of the meat grinder with food, she said. They would come running to the end of the tank when they heard it.
In a similar fashion, alligators at the refuge associate the slamming of a car door with food in popular fishing areas, she said.
Sometimes, an alligator will attack to defend its nest. If a person in this situation flees, the alligator will give up the chase once the person leaves its territory. For this reason, officials at the refuge close off hiking trails if they find an alligator nest nearby.
"People, sometimes unknowingly, put themselves in a situation where they're at risk," Brandt said. "It's not the killer alligator. It's a combination of unfortunate circumstances."
..and you thought the Duke LaCrosse team was a danger. I knew a Florida Gator All American football type and he cut a swath through the fems!
..so you knew him too!
Believe it or not, I actually played golf with one of the Duke defendants when he was a kid.
Stevie would vanish in a real swamp in a heartbeat!
If all the snowbirds moving in down here would just calm down and try to learn a few things, the problem would vanish. I don't suppose I'm ever more than a couple hundred feet from a gator, and they don't bother me.
Things will settle down if we get some good rain, and hurricane season is coming. That should make the gators happy, but I don't reckon it will please the Yankees.
If I had $300,000.00 to buy a new house, damned if I wouldn't learn a few things about location, before buying it.
I love Florida because of what it is, stop trying to change it, you won't like it any better, anyway.
Sounds like the gators should be worried that the callers are overwhelming the state hotline...
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