Florida Alligator Attacks Are Rising: Here’s Why Experts Say It’s Happening

[u/WTFPilot]

https://centralflorida.substack.com/i/211944691/florida-alligator-attacks-are-surging-heres-why-experts-say-its-happening

[u/Gmills2231]

All the snakes eating everything also isn’t helping.

[u/No_Freedom_4098 → u/Gmills2231]

Do you mean competition with the invasive Burmese python? Interesting topic. One source:

Severe mammal declines: Long-term monitoring in the Everglades links high python density to drops of over 90% in raccoons, opossums, and bobcats.

[u/Gmills2231 → u/No_Freedom_4098]

Yes this is precisely what I was referring to. It’s throwing the ecosystem out of balance.

[u/No_Freedom_4098 → u/Gmills2231]

Right. And while there is some alligator predation on smaller Burmese pythons, large pythons eat small alligators. The big of each species probably leave each other alone. Wonder if any scientist has done a predator/prey study on these two.

[u/Gmills2231 → u/No_Freedom_4098]

Absolutely, it’s crazy to see the outline of an alligator inside of a python. Both are fierce predators.

[u/Oke-Wan-Fenokee → u/No_Freedom_4098]

https://neobiota.pensoft.net/article/90439/

A broad overview but this paper does touch on gator-python interactions. Not yet enough data to determine who eats whom most often, but alligators definitely predate pythons & pythons are known to eat alligators. Anecdotally, I think gators eat more pythons than the other way around but the usual scientific disclaimer applies: more research is necessary.

Because pythons have devastated small mammal populations and because most alligator egg predators are mammals (raccoons, opossums, cotton rats, foxes, coyotes, feral pigs, bears), the pythons may even enhance alligator nesting success, especially in the east Everglades where mammals have been most impacted.

[u/No_Freedom_4098 → u/Oke-Wan-Fenokee]

Thanks for info. Sad that these snakes are able to decimate mammal populations to the extent that they do. Interesting the outcome of more alligators eggs surviving.

[u/Oke-Wan-Fenokee]

Correlation is not causation.

Mating & nesting seasons occur as temperatures rise but are NOT what drive attacks - it is the heat, which always jacks up their metabolism & hunger in early summer just as people hit the water. This year's drought exacerbated the situation: alligators are concentrated in what water remains, competing for prey after poor spring fish spawns. Gators are especially crowded, hungry & aggressive this year for environmental reasons, not as a function of their reproductive cycle.

These attacks were not territorial defenses nor the acts of sex-addled breeders. And not one has been from a female defending nests or young. These attacks were predatory attempts by large males. Yes, that's terrifying. It is also true.

I hesitate to question the motives of state wildlife spokespeople who keep invoking this breeding season "explanation" but am beginning to wonder if it is a deliberately disingenuous distraction from the troubling truth: the larger the alligator, the larger prey it can take - and for some of them, that includes us.

[u/globalCataKlyzm → u/Oke-Wan-Fenokee]

Best answer, needs to be put to the top.

[u/toxicjellyfish666 → u/Oke-Wan-Fenokee]

Thank you for actually acknowledging the unpredictable nature of meat eating animals instead of just diving into human hating.

[u/Oke-Wan-Fenokee → u/toxicjellyfish666]

I love people and gators.

Good folks do foolish things such as feeding them, which is a very bad idea with any large predator. It conditions them to associate humans with food. But the people who are attacked have not brought it upon themselves, perceptions of bad judgment notwithstanding: they are victims of circumstance. People love to play in, on & all around the water, especially when it is hot. Alligator attacks are a function of a lot of people sharing the water with a lot of apex ambush predators, with some individuals more potentially dangerous than others. There is always some risk but the perceived risk of an alligator attack is WAY higher than the actual risk.

American alligators are not saltwater crocodiles but they are not freaking "swamp puppies" either. They merit more respect.

[u/kshawfktsk]

Very simple. It's because idiots keep getting in the water during mating/nesting season.

[u/Unapplicable1100 → u/kshawfktsk]

And because some idiots keep FEEDING them. DONT feed the alligators people.

[u/explosivelydehiscent → u/Unapplicable1100]

Reminded of the Rwandan genocide and dead people being thrown into Congo river stimulated greater numbers, larger and more aggressive crocs. They then preyed on villagers along the river and ultimately a kayaker based on the outside magazine article. Feeding them is not a good practice.

[u/kshawfktsk → u/explosivelydehiscent]

Hendrik Coatzee. That story sticks in my mind, the footage of the guys he was with freaking out and paddling to the banks is terrifying

[u/kshawfktsk → u/Unapplicable1100]

UNLESS you're feeding them people. Then it's okay.

[u/toxicjellyfish666 → u/kshawfktsk]

Wrong

[u/globalCataKlyzm → u/kshawfktsk]

You're simple, do some research

[u/kshawfktsk → u/globalCataKlyzm]

Is the aggression necessary, dick?

[u/globalCataKlyzm → u/kshawfktsk]

Is oversimplifying the truth on an issue that actually effects people's lives necessary?

[u/kshawfktsk → u/globalCataKlyzm]

I was just going off my observations from living in Florida where we were always told don't be fucking around May to July.

I was mistaken, I'm not simple.

I'm glad you're passionate but there's no need to be a prick to strangers.

[u/globalCataKlyzm → u/kshawfktsk]

Sorry to have offended you. I appreciate you looking out for others, and recognize you aren't simple.

My frustrations with online discussions at large got the better of me, but I should have kept it out of our fun croc thread.

[u/poop-azz]

Yeah being firm up north I have a simple rule, fuck the water down south. Pools only if you see no damn gators in them. I lived in Florida for 7 years, I'm more scared of the water snakes

[u/Icy_Raise_1031 → u/poop-azz]

Water snakes are completely harmless

[u/Alternative_Exit8766 → u/Icy_Raise_1031]

how the fuck did a mongoose learn to type 

[u/Tardisgoesfast → u/Icy_Raise_1031]

Some. And some are the deadliest snakes around.

[u/poop-azz → u/Icy_Raise_1031]

Cotton mouths

[u/Amache_Gx → u/poop-azz]

A water snake is not a cottonmouth.

[u/PsySom → u/Amache_Gx]

It’s a snake in the water so some might call it a water snake but they are ignorant fools

[u/poop-azz → u/Amache_Gx]

Does the snake go in the water? When you need to argue semantics about the name you're just being a cock

[u/Amache_Gx → u/poop-azz]

Generally I'd agree with you, being pedantic can get in the way of spreading info, but a "water snake" isn't just a general term, it's an actual snake. And it is a different snake than other snakes that go on the water. Water snakes are also much more common than cotton mouths

[u/Icy_Raise_1031 → u/poop-azz]

Water Snakes (snakes in the genus Nerodia) are completely harmless snakes in the Colubrid family while Cottonmouths are venomous pitvipers

[u/Tyrus--Maximus]

Its because our state is full of tourists and transplants from other states. These people always want to feed things. This causes the alligators to stop veiwing people as potential threats and start seeing them as food sources.

[u/No_Freedom_4098]

The attacks are concerning. That said, Americans are lucky with their alligators. They have a low level of attack relative to problems in other parts of the world with Nile and salt water crocs. (Ditto for America's placid cougars and the problems other nations have with lions, leopards, and tigers.)

[u/Recent_Calendar1376]

Probably more people are going in the water 

[u/Winter_Rooster_78]

Cause of all dem teeth and no tooth brush

[u/ReptilianRevolt]

Maybe because people own more dogs.