When I moved (again) to Florida in 1960, alligators were being touted as an endangered species!
Of course, developers have established thousands of ponds in designing Florida’s 3000 golf courses, so alligators can romp and breed in many more locations.
The endangered species list was part of the problem creating aggressive gators. Snowbirds fed them to snap pictures to send home making gators lose their fear of people.
That wasn't a big problem until the gators were 'protected'..
In the old days Florida men would kill gators that came too close maintaining the 'fear of people' needed to keep them away. When the red tape involved in killing an aggressive gator wasn't worth the effort - men backed off and gators lost their natural fear of people.
When I was a kid we'd swim with alligators 30 feet away sunning on the water's edge. It worked because they were more afraid of us than we were of them. Those days are gone.