NEWS-PRESS (Fort Myers, Florida) 06 March 06 Conduct around gators often unwise - Wildlife officials warn of dire consequences (Kevin Lollar)
People still don’t get the gator thing.
Rob Jess, manager of the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, was on a Sanibel road Thursday in an area where a female and five young alligators were known to hang out.
People gathered by a retaining fence to get a glimpse of the reptiles.
“I was standing there in my uniform, and there was this older lady and her grandchildren,” Jess said. “She lifted one of the kids up over the retaining fence so he could get a good view.
“I grabbed her and the kid and proceeded to chew her out. I told her that once an alligator gets hold of your grandchild, there won’t be a whole lot anybody can do.”
This was not an isolated incident, Jess said.
“People just don’t understand the danger that’s out there,” he said. “They still assume they’re watching things on a movie screen or TV. There’s a disassociation that goes on. I can’t figure out what it is.”
What people seem not to realize is that alligators are dangerous animals that can attack without warning.
In August 2004, an 11-foot-8-inch alligator attacked and killed Sanibel landscaper Janie Melsek, prompting the city to change its nuisance alligator policy, which had been different from the state’s policy.
Under state rules, an alligator is considered a nuisance if it is at least 4 feet long and poses a threat to people, pets or property. Licensed trappers can be called to remove and kill those animals.
Before the attack on Melsek, Sanibel’s alligator policy stated that an alligator smaller than 8 feet long had to behave aggressively or show signs of having been fed before it could be destroyed.
Now, the city follows the state policy.
This year, 206 nuisance alligators have been removed statewide; 50 in Lee County. Sanibel officials did not have the island’s 2006 removal statistics.
One way an alligator becomes a nuisance is when people feed it. Fed alligators lose fear of people and begin to associate people with food.
But any large alligator can be aggressive — a 10-footer would look at a 150-pound human as something it could kill and eat, as it would a deer or wild hog.
Gary Morse, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman, had some advice about alligators.
“If you see an alligator, avoid it,” he said. “Do not feed alligators. Do not swim in alligator areas at dusk or dawn. Do not swim in heavy vegetation. Don’t walk your children or pets around alligator areas when alligators are most active.”
Another group of people who don’t get the gator thing is poachers, such as Jack Trammel, 41, of 206 N.W. Sixth Ave., Cape Coral, and Donald Melynchek, 63, 186 N.W. Sixth Ave., Cape Coral.
The two men tied a rope to a tree and attached a treble hook baited with a cornish game hen; they then threw the bait into Powell Creek in North Fort Myers and left the scene.
A construction worker called FWC, and officer Dave Jennings went to investigate.
Jennings pulled the rope and found an 8-foot, 300-pound alligator at the end of the line, so he waited about a block away for the suspects.
When Trammel and Melynchek returned, they pulled the gator from the water and shot it in the head.
The men were charged with intentionally killing, capturing or possessing an alligator, which is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
“He admitted in a taped statement that he’s done it before,” Jennings said of Trammel. “He was going to eat it.”
Conduct around gators often unwise