Mating Season Means More Alligators Venturing Among People: Video

FLORIDA — Ah, the signs of spring in Florida: warm, sunny days on the beach, gentle breezes off the Gulf beckoning you to take leisurely strolls with your dog — and alligators lurking beneath your car, crawling through the parking lots of shopping centers and tussling next to your neighborhood pond.

Alligator encounters in the spring are inevitable in Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. While the American alligator normally sticks close to its home throughout most of the year, in the spring they tend to wander as they seek out mates and new sources of food, increasing the chances of encounters with people.

The alligator mating season officially began April 1, but Floridians were experiencing close encounters of the reptile kind weeks before April Fool's Day.

Around 8:45 a.m. March 31, Hillsborough County sheriff's Deputy Shyanne Wheaton and FWC officers were called to a Tampa apartment complex after a resident spotted a 10-foot-2-inch gator hiding beneath a parked car in the parking lot.

Wheaton’s body camera caught the action as a contracted nuisance alligator trapper managed to capture the big fella and transfer him to an alligator farm. Neither the gator nor the trapper was injured.

Three days earlier, Hillsborough County sheriff's Deputies Aimee Temple and Noah Heupel had a less-intimidating encounter with a gator.

On March 28, they were called to a shopping center in FishHawk Ranch after shoppers spotted a 4-foot gator doing a bit of window shopping.

The deputies were able to catch the curious gator and return him to a habitat where his presence wouldn't cause quite so much alarm.

On March 26, East Lake resident Tim Kelly was enjoying a cup of coffee on his screened pool lanai when he heard a growl and a bang.

"I look over to my right, and there I saw on our lanai was this gator, about a 7-footer, and he had gotten stuck under one of our little tables," Kelly said.

Kelly promptly called the FWC. While waiting for officers to arrive, the gator took a leisurely swim in Kelly's pool.

"We were just sitting here having coffee just watching him swim around in the pool," Kelly said. "He would come up and rest on the steps, then sink to the bottom again. It was unbelievable."

On Tuesday, Lakewood Ranch resident Gordon Silver was equally surprised to find two large gators tussling in his back yard. He promptly began videotaping what FWC officers described as a typical gator mating ritual.

Related story: Watch: Large Gators 'Wrestle' In Lakewood Ranch Backyard

These gator encounters were uneventful compared with others that have occurred over the past few years as developers encroach on the gators' habitat.

In 2018, horse rancher Mike Santo was watching his dark bay gelding, Jay's Crown, take a dip in a pond in Santo's pasture when a 9- to 10-foot gator attacked the championship rodeo horse, taking a bite out of the horse's flank. Jay's Crown survived, but his days on the rodeo circuit were finished.

Santo, who's lived in Pasco County all his life, said he'd never had a problem with alligators until houses and an elementary school were built around his ranch.

That same year, a Davie woman walking her dogs in a nature park was attacked and killed by a gator, and a group of gators chased a 15-year-old girl up a tree in Lake County.

A month later, two German shepherds walking with their owners in Shamrock Park in Venice were attacked by gators. One was killed, and the other was never found. Wildlife officials suspected it was killed as well.

The next day, a gator attacked a black Labrador retriever that was wading in a retention pond in FishHawk Ranch. This time the dog survived.

In May 2019, a Clearwater resident was awakened by a noise in the kitchen of her condominium. When she went to investigate, she discovered an 11-foot alligator had broken through a floor-to-ceiling window and destroyed her prized wine collection.

A few months later, in August 2019, heavy rains coaxed alligators out of their usual habitats. One was videotaped crossing Gandy Boulevard in Tampa. Another was captured on camera climbing a fence at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville.

SEE ALSO:

• 11-Foot Gator Breaks Into Clearwater Home, Heads For The Wine
• Close Encounters During Gator Mating Season; Here's What To Do
• Video: It's Raining Gators In Florida

One of the most dramatic gator videos was taken last November when an Estero resident was walking his 3-month-old cocker spaniel puppy, Gunner, near a pond in his neighbor. Another resident captured the scene as a small alligator leaped from the pond, grabbed the puppy and pulled it beneath the water.

Richard Wilbanks, 74, said instinct and adrenaline kicked in. He dove into the pond, pulled the gator out and released his puppy from its jaws. Gunner was treated and survived the encounter.

A member of the crocodile family, the American alligator is a living fossil, having survived on Earth for 200 million years. It's found in swampy areas throughout the Southeast, where it has survived on a diet of fish, snakes, turtles, lizards, small mammals and birds, said Brooke Talley, FWC's alligator management program coordinator.

But as people moved closer to the swamps where gators made their homes and created new gator habitats by adding retention ponds to developments, alligators have developed a taste of dogs, cats and sometimes humans.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission receives an average of nearly 16,000 alligator-related complaints per year. Most of these complaints deal with alligators appearing in backyard ponds, canals, ditches and streams, but other conflicts occur when alligators wander into garages, swimming pools and golf course ponds.

According to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission, there have been 24 fatal alligator attacks since 1973.

Alligator Bites On People In Florida

Five or six times a year since 2015, there are reports complete with video showing a mammoth alligator moseying along the back nine of a Florida golf course. The FWC said the videos are clearly fake.

While American alligators can grow 15 feet long, alligators that size are rare. The largest alligator ever found was 15 feet, 9 inches long and weighed 1,011.5 pounds. It was discovered on Mill Creek, a tributary of the Alabama River. There's no such thing as a gargantuan Jurassic Park-like alligator wandering from one golf course to the next in Florida, according to the FWC.

Although tragic tales of alligators killing people and pets receive a great deal of publicity, serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in Florida, Talley said.

To ensure that remains the case, the statewide Nuisance Alligator Program proactively addresses alligator threats in developed areas while protecting alligators in areas where they naturally occur.

Nevertheless, there's cause for caution. To help keep people and pets safe when spending time near the water, the FWC has introduced a new graphic outlining important safety tips.

“We wanted to produce a tool with easy-to-remember advice that people could easily share with their friends and family on social media,” said Talley. “We hope everyone joins us in getting the word out about simple precautions pet owners should take when in or near the water.”

When temperatures rise, alligators’ metabolism increases and they begin moving beyond their habitats seeking food. Therefore, you’re more likely to see them, she said.

She provided the following tips to reduce the risk of a conflict with an alligator:

• Keep pets on a leash and a safe distance away from the water’s edge because pets can resemble alligators’ natural prey.
• Swim only in designated swimming areas during daylight hours, and never allow your pet to swim in fresh or brackish water.
• Leave alligators alone. State law prohibits killing, harassing or possessing alligators. Handling even small alligators can result in injury.
• Alligators are most active between dusk and dawn. Therefore, avoid swimming at night.
• If you believe an alligator poses a threat to people, pets or property, call FWC’s toll-free Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286), and the FWC will dispatch a contracted nuisance alligator trapper to resolve the situation.

"The American alligator is an important part of Florida’s wetland habitats, and is really a conservation success story," Talley said.

At one time, alligators were nearly hunted out of existence for their skins, which were made into shoes, boots, purses, wallets and belts in the 1950s and '60s. Others died off due to development that destroyed their habitats. As a result, the gator was placed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species list until 1987, when it made a comeback. It is one of only a handful of animals that has been removed from the endangered species list.

Florida now has an estimated 1.3 million alligators living in freshwater lakes, ponds, swamps and slow-moving rivers in all 67 counties in Florida, where they're instrumental in controlling the rodent population and well as ridding the wetlands of nonnative species that threaten the environment such as the Burmese python, the cane toad and the Argentine tegu.

Gator mating season typically begins in May or June, but their courtship starts in early April — and that means more alligator sightings as the reptiles venture out in search of their mates.

By late June or early July, female gators lay between 32 to 46 eggs. Incubation periods for alligators take about 60 to 65 days, and baby gators are born in late August or early September.

To learn more about gators, watch the FWC video and read the "Living with Alligators" brochure.