Alligator Attack
Bonnie Boerema
©
Copyright 2018 by Bonnie Boerema
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After
renting a condo in Marco Island, Florida for one year, in June,2015,
we bought a condo four miles from Marco Island, in Naples. Our
neighbors, Fred and Jane told us an alligator story that happened a
few years before we moved here. They’ve been coming down here
from Boston for twenty eight years. A man that that lives in Midway
Condos across the street, drove over with his dog to visit one of our
residents. When he and the dog got out of the car, his dog barked.
Dogs are a favorite food for alligators. An alligator raced across
the rocks, and came around to the parking lot after the dog, The dog
ran off, but the alligator had the man’s leg in his mouth. In
minutes, the Florida Fish and Wildlife were here, and beat the
alligator to death.
There
are more than 1.3 million alligators in Florida alone. They grow
between 11 and 13 feet, and weigh close to 800 pounds. An adult male
weighs 500 pounds, and a female weighs 200 pounds. An alligator’s
lifespan is 30-50 years. A one-year-old alligator brought to the
Belgrade Zoo (Serbia) seventy seven years ago (now78 years old) is
still alive.
They’re
faster in swimming than us, and faster in running than us.In 1987,
Florida declared the alligator their official state reptile. Large
males are solitary, territorial animals. Males grow faster than
females. With their heavy bodies and slow metabolisms, alligators are
capable of short bursts of speed, exceeding 30 miles per hour. When
the eggs are laid, they do not have any particular gender associated
to it. The sex of baby alligators is decided by the temp of the
prevailing atmosphere at the time of incubating the eggs.
Normally
alligators avoid humans, but if they’ve been fed by humans,
they’ll move toward them, and can become aggressive. Alligators fed by
humans are dangerous. They should be reported to
the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation guys. They have a rounded
snout. Their teeth keep replacing themselves. An alligator can go
through 3,000 teeth in a lifetime. They have between 74 and 80 teeth
in their mouth at a time.
They
bite down with 2,960 pounds of force, one of the most powerful bites
ever recorded for a living animal. Juvenile alligators are capable of
eating 23% of their body weight in a sitting, equivalent to a 180
pound person eating over 41 pounds of steak at a meal. The biggest
threat to an American alligator is other alligators. When they’re
born, they’re small enough to be light snacks for their older
neighbors.
A
2011 study estimated that, in one Florida lake, bigger alligators eat
6 to 7% of the juvenile population every year. Their stomach is a
hostile environment. Their stomach acids have a pH of less than 2 –
in the range of lemon juice and vinegar – and most soft-bodied
prey is totally digested in 2-3 days.
But
if you wound up in an alligator’s stomach, however, you’d
stick around a bit longer. Bone and other hard parts take 13-100 days
to disappear completely. They’re tough, and not just because of
the bony armor in their skins. Serum in American alligators blood is
incredibly effective at combating bacteria and infection.
Alligator
attacks – frequency and number of unprovoked serious bites in
Florida are really rare. Both alligators and crocodiles came rom
dinosaurs. It’s believed that alligators have remained for the
most part, over 35 million years. There are over six million acres
that are suitable for alligators across the state. The Spanish gave
them their name. Early Spanish settlers in Florida called them el
lagarto. They likely exist in every waterway in our state. All three
T.V. stations for Southwestern Florida, Channel 2, NBC, Fox 4, and
Wink News frequently have alligator stories on their daily and
nightly news. Somebody has encountered an alligator, either in their
garage or pool.
June
15, 2016 – Police recovered the body of a two-year-old boy,Lane
Graves. He was grabbed by an alligator in front of his family during
a vacation at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The child was
snatched by the alligator as he played at the water’s edge,and
dragged into a lagoon despite his parents’ efforts to save him. His
body had only a few puncture wounds, according to a source
familiar with the investigation. The child was drowned by the
alligator. The body was found in 6 feet of murky water 10 to 15 yards
from where the boy was attacked. Alligators hunt food from just
before sundown to sunrise, so they are very active around dusk.
Females
are usually smaller than males. As big and ferocious as the female
alligator may look, she is a gentle mother. A mother alligator makes
a nest on shore, where she lays her eggs. Then she guards her eggs
until they’re ready to hatch. Baby alligators typically stay
with their mother for at least a year, and sometimes up to three
years. Baby alligators can’t depend on their elders for a
helping hand. A baby alligator sits on its mother’s head –
one of a few methods they use to transport their young. They’re
also found in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. They’ll eat
nearly anything, but have shown a preference for dogs, chicken and
marshmallows. They mostly sleep in the sun during the day, and feed
at night, when they can only be detected by the red glow of their
eyes.
TO
AVOID AN ATTACK – STAY AWAY FROM ALLIGATORS
Alligators
are large, wild animals with very basic instincts, The most basic
instinct is to eat, and except for mating occasionally,they have few
other interests. They don’t multitask. A fully grown alligator
can reach 13 feet and 600 pounds. This fully grown alligator has a
brain the size of a walnut. They’ll usually be in the edges of
the water, where they can hide in the reeds, and head for deeper
water. An alligator has a broad head, a slightly rounded body,and
thick limbs. It uses its powerful tail to propel itself through the
water. The tail accounts for half the alligator’s length.
Although
alligators have no vocal cords, males bellow loudly to attract mates,
and warn off other males by sucking air into their lungs, and blowing
it out in intermittent, deep-toned roars. The United States is the
only nation on earth where both alligators and crocodiles live
together. Alligators have wide u-shaped snouts and crocodiles have
v-shaped snouts. They’re less violent than crocs. Alligators
are darker in complexion compared to crocodiles.
They
are cold-blooded animals, and cannot regulate their internal body
temperature. If they want to warm up, they look for a sunny spot.
Alligator
Tears – When a person is accused of crying alligator
tears,
the implication is that the tears are fake, and the emotion is far
from genuine. Alligators really do shed genuine tears, but only to
clean and moisturize their eyes.
Monday
morning this week, from our lanai, my husband and I spotted a male
alligator with his whole body visible to us, swimming30 miles per
hour, toward a female alligator further down the lake. April and May
is their mating season. Week before last, a roofing company was here,
putting a new roof on all of our condos, due to the damage done by
Hurricane Irma last September. At lunch time,a catering truck came
out to feed the roofers. There was a very large male alligator, with
his mouth on the rocks. All the pounding on the roof, and the smell
of food had lured him out of the water. Eaten by an alligator is
definitely not the way I want to go out of this world.
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Bonnie
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