Heh, welcome to Florida

[AAAintheBeltway]

Gators are lazy frickin' pigs. The reservoir next to me (Medard Park) has thousands of the damn things, including a couple of monsters that look like dinosaurs, and pretty much all they ever do is sun themselves and grunt from being overstuffed. Every one of them is bloated to the max... because they've filled up on my bass and catfish. Dammit. They wouldn't know what to do with an arm in the water if you hit them in the head with the soggy end.

Just for the record, fatal gator attacks in the entire US average well under one per year. That's about 25x less than dogs. Pretty much the last thing to worry about.

While I tend to agree with your assessment, people do need to realize that gators are apex predators and not something to take lightly. The tragedy at Disney illustrates that. And I know you're not kidding about a few of them that reach cartoonish size. I've been told the smaller ones are more dangerous because of their speed and aggressiveness.

 

[BlueWaterSailor]

While I tend to agree with your assessment, people do need to realize that gators are apex predators and not something to take lightly. The tragedy at Disney illustrates that. And I know you're not kidding about a few of them that reach cartoonish size. I've been told the smaller ones are more dangerous because of their speed and aggressiveness.

Oh, agreed - I've seen tourists take idiotic risks with gators and iguanas that made me shudder (and I'm the guy who pulled a 9' shark off a reef in St. Augustine when he got stuck on the outgoing tide, and picked up an osprey with a broken wing - bare-handed - when the poor damn thing washed up against the sea wall there during a hurricane passage. Well, I wasn't going to let that beautiful bird just die, was I? Spent a good ten minutes talking to him to calm him down, then stuffed him in a cardboard box and got him to a vet that Raptor Rescue recommended. Worked out great. But man, those claws are huge up close...)

The thing about lizards is that the lazy buggers store up energy and release it in insane bursts. When I was sailing through the Bahamas and stopped at Allan's Cay, the iguanas there would aaammmble up sllllooowly when you tossed them a piece of a plantain or something like that; poke at it lackadaisically, and then maaaaybe eat it. But toss a piece of raw conch or fish in the air as you were cleaning one, and there will be four of them in the air with it before it comes down.

Point is, don't worry about them much - but don't underestimate them, either.