Is Florida Dangerous?!?

[millpond]

YES!! We have alligators that eat people now several times per week. Please feel free to stay home and not come down here to fish or hunt. Leave that up to us.

--Millpond

[whitewolf393]

I thought that Florida DNR gave you guys an alligator season recently? Man, alligator tail does taste good, so you must be happy if that's true!

[Squirrel_Hunter_Gray]

From what I have seen, a lot of places are dangerous in one way or another. You just have to choose your "poison." It's either gators, venomous snakes, twisters, frostbite, excessive heat, traffic, grizzly bears, cougars, murder,etc. etc. I think if you have a healthy respect for wildlife and natural forces, you aremost likely notgoing to have a problem.

[timbercruiser]

It is common to see a gator most any place. Seems to be a lot more of them than there was 30 years ago. You occasionally see them crossing the highway, sometimes a small one will get run over. I think people feeding them when they clean fish, etc,gets the gators to where they aren't scared of you.

[whitewolf393]

Like the bears in many places, they've lost their fear of humans, and that's not good.

[Rebel Hog]

Many of these people that you read about or see on the news, are dumb people who moved down here and feed the gators as pets. You play with fire and you will get burned!

[Squirrel_Hunter_Gray]

Habituation of wildlife to human presence and feeding is usually bad for everyone involved. Problems range from property damage to disease, injury and even death.I agree on that point for sure, no matter what species you are talking about (carnivore or herbivore.) People need to learn that not respecting wildlife and nottreating them as wild can have enormous impacts on wildlife as well as other people.

There are definately more gators than there were 30 years ago because they were Endangered and nearly extinct. The recovery of the gator population is one of the success stories of wildlife conservation in the fact that we have a healthy population of them now. I think Florida is doing a good job of managing the gator population through legal harvests, etc. They do taste great! The issue now becomes one of people management. Many people do not realize that50% of Wildlife Management is People Management.Everyone in Florida should realize that neitherdirect nor indirect feeding ofwildlife (through cleaning fish where they are caught for example)is acceptable.I can tell you up front that the wildlife can be easier to work with.

I realize that we are mainly talking about gators butplease keep in mind that more people are killed every year worldwide by herbivores than carnivores, so don't feed deer either!

[millpond]

I have had several occasions with gatorswithin a foot of the bass boat and other times with them right next to us while duck hunting.

I was golfing with my brother last spring in Jacksonville and laying on the fairway next to a pond was an 8 footer. I said, "You know your in florida when you see that" and my brother said, "You know your a from florida when it doesn't scare the crap out of you"

But I love the hunting and fishing in florida and am only trying to discourage people from coming down here. Thanks for all the replys.

[Rebel Hog]

ORIGINAL: millpond

But I love the hunting and fishing in florida and am only trying to discourage people from coming down here. Thanks for all the replys.

Right on,MP! I was born and raisedin the FL Keys and our diet was Fish, Green Turtles, Jew Fish, Spiny Lobster, Stone Crabs and Conch,but over the years of so many people moving to Fl, (the state had to ban Green Turtles, Jew Fish,Conch and place a limit on the Fish, Stone Crabsand Spiny Lobster)that are taken. That's like telling a China Man, you can't have rice anymore!

[whitewolf393]

ORIGINAL: Squirrel_Hunter_Gray
I realize that we are mainly talking about gators butplease keep in mind that more people are killed every year worldwide by herbivores than carnivores, so don't feed deer either!

No brother, we should allow the deer to feed us!