"if a Californian gets dropped in the Louisiana bayou and a gator comes at him, what else is he gonna do? Run?"
I've seen a lot of gators in my day and I've never known one to "come at me". Every one I've ever seen has ignored me or hit the water and swam away. I was born and raised in LA and have never known anyone who had to shoot an alligator.
My guess is they shot them for fun.
That was my point... I guess I could have phrased it better.
I would imagine most California state police officers have never seen an alligator in person and wouldn't have a clue what their 'normal' behavior is. When they see one, they think, "kill it before it kills me."
"I've never known one to "come at me""
Maybe the gators in LA are not very aggressive. But the ones we have in SW Florida have no problem going after people. We had a big one swim right up to our 20 Hewes a few weeks ago on Shell Creek. He was definitely in a mode to "taste" anything dangling over. I wanted to put down the powerpole to see if he hit it, but reconsidered. What would I do if he did? He had NO FEAR at all.