GATORS!!!
I vividly remember telling my friend in Wisconsin almost 20 years ago when I’d decided I was moving to Florida. I also vividly remember his reaction.
“Really?” He said, “Man, I don’t know, I mean I guess they have nice weather there, but what about all those alligators they have down there?”
I must admit, for a brief moment I did think about alligators. I even thought more about them, when my very first month of living here I walked out onto my back lanai and saw one sitting on the bank near the water. It was probably 6 ft. long and looked to me like it was fake because it just sat there looking at me with it’s mouth half open. Looked almost black to me. I stood in my lanai, probably 60 ft or so from it looking out toward the “lake”, I say “lake” because it wasn’t a real lake, I’m from Wisconsin, lakes go for miles, lakes are big, lakes like Lake Michigan are massive. Here what’s called a lake barely passes for a pond up north. But nonetheless, it is a body of water, and they sure can be nice to wake up to in the morning in the middle of winter and not be covered with snow and ice. Anyway, here’s this alligator just sitting there, so I grabbed my camera and walked toward the screen door of the lanai slowly opening the door as to not alarm the gator that I was in the area. I think, if I remember correctly that I may have gotten one step out of the lanai before the gator swooshed his way into the water and disappeared.
I’ve now lived down in Naples for almost 20 years. I’ve golfed almost every golf course built, well, maybe not all, but quite a few, I’ve seen literally hundreds of gators, in the Everglades, on golf courses, and in “lakes.” I’ve yet to be able to get anyway near one.
After my first “encounter” I did do some research. What I found was both surprising and a bit of a relief.
Gators don’t like being around people. Gators don’t like to be bothered. When gators are hungry, they like to eat and they don’t like to work hard for their food if they don’t have too. I read an article that said if you feed an alligator, you basically kill an alligator. Once gators associate people with food they become dangerous. They become a nuisance. They need to be removed, and in some cases destroyed. So, if you ever see a gator sitting on a bank and you happen to take a step toward it like I did, and it does anything but swoosh it’s way into the water, stay away from it. Maybe someone who doesn’t know better has fed the gator and he’s hanging around to see if you will do the same or if you’re interested in being the meal.
For the most part, after living here for 20 years and seeing my share of them, I’d be more concerned about getting struck by lightning than getting attacked by a gator. But that’s another story.
Enjoy Naples, enjoy our weather, especially the upcoming winter, and don’t worry about gators, just admire their prehistoric appearance if by chance you happen to see one.
