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ORLANDO SENTINEL (Florida) 22 March 06 Alligators are the natives -- get used to it (Lauren Ritchie)
I knew he was doomed the first time I saw him.
It was mid-October, and the black alligator was lurking in a retention pond on Lake Dora Drive, not far from downtown Tavares.
He startled me because he was so large and so unimpressed by traffic. His head and shoulders were out of the water and his snout was in the air. He was motionless, bright green slime dripping from the front half of his body. If he thought it was camouflage, he was wrong. He was a hard sight to hide.
My 13-year-old daughter and I drive that road every day, and soon we started looking for him. Then we dubbed him "Munchkin."
As we got to know him, the big guy began to speak in a very measured, chilly British accent.
"Don't pay any attention to me. Just let the little poodle come in for a swim," he would coax in my daughter's best refined English drawl as we cruised by.
I feared he eventually would freak out some unsuspecting New Yorker and would end up as a snazzy briefcase. But Munchkin was there nearly every day, sometimes sunning his impressive self on the banks.
As the months wore on, I figured the neighbors were of the live-and-let-live persuasion. After all, the nearest house probably is 200 feet away, and all nearby are on water. So maybe this was a neighborhood where people understand that alligators are simply part of life in Florida.
On March 7, Munchkin was dead.
A sign posted near the retention pond bore this message: "A murder was committed here by someone who is afraid of Florida. Who is next? The eagles? The fox? Gators belong here, too. C.L. Lockwood"
Below it was a second sign in reply: "All species should be wisely managed, but the American alligator is no longer endangered. And when living in a man-made body of water, we should consider removing it. Furthermore, this particular alligator has shown no fear of humans. With the proliferation of alligator farms and regulated hunting, the American alligator population has flourished. K. Carter."
Alligators have not been considered endangered since 1977, but they are a "species of special concern," according to the state of Florida, which means they can't be converted to deep-fried nuggets willy-nilly.
I wasn't able to locate either of the folks who posted the signs. I don't know whether Munchkin did something threatening to a human. I don't know who killed him or how he died.
But here are a few things I do know about these reptiles.
Alligators don't know whether bodies of water are man-made. It's hard to teach that sort of subtlety to a creature with a brain the size of a lima bean. They don't realize that your Highland terrier is not an hors d'oeuvre. It's tasty, and grabbing it stops the annoying yapping.
Unless the problem with this gator was extreme, here's how it could have been solved.
Walk your dog on the other side of the road.
Jogging? Cross the street.
Do your children regularly swim in retention ponds? Then you have problems bigger than alligators.
These pre-historic reptiles are part of life in Florida. Can't live with them? Then please go home to New Jersey. Those of us with respect for wildlife can easily live without you.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/orl-lritchie2206mar22,0,3395470.column?coll=orl-news-col

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>>ORLANDO SENTINEL (Florida) 22 March 06 Alligators are the natives -- get used to it (Lauren Ritchie)
>>I knew he was doomed the first time I saw him.
>>It was mid-October, and the black alligator was lurking in a retention pond on Lake Dora Drive, not far from downtown Tavares.
>>He startled me because he was so large and so unimpressed by traffic. His head and shoulders were out of the water and his snout was in the air. He was motionless, bright green slime dripping from the front half of his body. If he thought it was camouflage, he was wrong. He was a hard sight to hide.
>>My 13-year-old daughter and I drive that road every day, and soon we started looking for him. Then we dubbed him "Munchkin."
>>As we got to know him, the big guy began to speak in a very measured, chilly British accent.
>>"Don't pay any attention to me. Just let the little poodle come in for a swim," he would coax in my daughter's best refined English drawl as we cruised by.
>>I feared he eventually would freak out some unsuspecting New Yorker and would end up as a snazzy briefcase. But Munchkin was there nearly every day, sometimes sunning his impressive self on the banks.
>>As the months wore on, I figured the neighbors were of the live-and-let-live persuasion. After all, the nearest house probably is 200 feet away, and all nearby are on water. So maybe this was a neighborhood where people understand that alligators are simply part of life in Florida.
>>On March 7, Munchkin was dead.
>>A sign posted near the retention pond bore this message: "A murder was committed here by someone who is afraid of Florida. Who is next? The eagles? The fox? Gators belong here, too. C.L. Lockwood"
>>Below it was a second sign in reply: "All species should be wisely managed, but the American alligator is no longer endangered. And when living in a man-made body of water, we should consider removing it. Furthermore, this particular alligator has shown no fear of humans. With the proliferation of alligator farms and regulated hunting, the American alligator population has flourished. K. Carter."
>>Alligators have not been considered endangered since 1977, but they are a "species of special concern," according to the state of Florida, which means they can't be converted to deep-fried nuggets willy-nilly.
>>I wasn't able to locate either of the folks who posted the signs. I don't know whether Munchkin did something threatening to a human. I don't know who killed him or how he died.
>>But here are a few things I do know about these reptiles.
>>Alligators don't know whether bodies of water are man-made. It's hard to teach that sort of subtlety to a creature with a brain the size of a lima bean. They don't realize that your Highland terrier is not an hors d'oeuvre. It's tasty, and grabbing it stops the annoying yapping.
>>Unless the problem with this gator was extreme, here's how it could have been solved.
>>Walk your dog on the other side of the road.
>>Jogging? Cross the street.
>>Do your children regularly swim in retention ponds? Then you have problems bigger than alligators.
>>These pre-historic reptiles are part of life in Florida. Can't live with them? Then please go home to New Jersey. Those of us with respect for wildlife can easily live without you.
>>
>> http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/orl-lritchie2206mar22,0,3395470.column?coll=orl-news-col
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U.A.P.P.E.A.L.
Uniting A Proactive Primate and Exotic Animal League
www.uappeal.org

ORLANDO SENTINEL (Florida) 24 March 06 Second gator bites the dust because of fear (Lauren Ritchie)
Alligators.
You folks either love 'em in your pond or love 'em on your plate.
After writing about the death of Munchkin, an alligator my daughter and I had watched until he was killed, the e-mail started rolling in.
Most people were angry that the gator, who lived in a retention pond on Lake Dora Drive about 200 feet from the nearest home, was exterminated. One resident posted a sign decrying the death and asking, "Who is next? The eagles?" A second neighbor wrote a long response about "management" of species that seemed to defend the killing.
Turns out Munchkin wasn't the only recent reptile casualty. A gator near the retirement community of Imperial Terrace in Tavares was snuffed out after a resident complained to state authorities.
"We are actually grieving the loss of our neighborhood 'Hungry Harry,' as our grandsons had dubbed him. And we are not the only ones," wrote Connie Fleck, who lives in Imperial Terrace with her husband, Jim.
She said other folks in the park are upset, too, because they loved to watch the gators sun themselves. They're contacting the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to ask officers to investigate more thoroughly if someone complains about a second alligator, who also lives there. Fleck said the alligators haven't been aggressive.
"It seems un-American to carry out of the wishes of one complainant who only 'worried' that the gator might 'get' their little dog that they wished to keep unleashed -- against the rules of our 55-and-older park," she wrote.
The Flecks were visiting friends Saturday when the gator was shot, but they heard the bang.
"Our neighbors told us how gruesome it was, and we still haven't gotten up the nerve to tell the grandkids," wrote Fleck, who said that all 11 of them are in Ohio.
"Let us continue Florida's tradition of having these impressive creatures in our midst," she said.
The loss of my buddy Munchkin and the Flecks' Hungry Harry isn't the end of the world. An estimated 1 million alligators live in Florida.
But killing them for the convenience of humans rather than because of a real safety problem is symbolic of what's going on all over Florida with development taking over wildlife and places they live.
It's sad.
Without wildlife, Florida is just another Arizona without the cactus. Few of us want that. We've got to do our part.
Second gator bites the dust because of fear

...doesn't have a clue about Arizona and has never spent any quality time in the Sonoran desert!

MH