PALM BEACH POST (Florida) 31 October 06 Gators may fall from protected, comfy existence to life on lam (Meghan Meyer)
Those alligators basking on the banks of canals and ponds in Donna Brosemer's Palm Beach Gardens neighborhood soon may be fair game for hunters and homeowners.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released recommendations Monday that alligators be downgraded from "species of special concern" to "game" within five years. The state still would manage the alligator population, which has surpassed a million, in the state's core river systems and waterways, program coordinator Harry Dutton said.
The commission also suggested allowing homeowners to kill nuisance alligators on their property or pay a nuisance-wildlife trapper to do it for them.
Nearly 40 years after American alligators appeared on the first federal endangered species list, they have swelled in population to the point that state officials also might allow hunters to pursue them like deer.
The recommendations leave some questions. If a homeowner could kill an alligator on his property, what would he do with it? It's likely that selling the alligator wouldn't be allowed, but a homeowner could eat it at home, Dutton said.
Brosemer is ready to take the problem into her own hands.
"We are way past the endangered species list," she said. "It's just stupid to put the welfare of gators ahead of the welfare of people."
The changes were recommended after the first comprehensive review of the state's alligator management program in its 20-year history. The commission will consider them at its December meeting.
Dutton, who made his proposals after an online survey, said they have nothing to do with the state's three fatal alligator attacks in May.
"It all seems to be connected but it's really not," Dutton said. "I wish the three fatalities didn't happen, and if they didn't, this would still be going on. It's just a timely thing to do."
After alligators killed three women in a week, callers overwhelmed the state's nuisance-alligator hot line, (866-FWC-GATOR). It had fielded 19,013 calls through Monday, compared with 18,443 all last year. Trappers rushed to buy permits for the limited hunting season, which ends Wednesday.
Floridians have gotten into trouble for trying to get rid of dangerous alligators. A woman on the west coast was warned this year, and could have been fined, after shooting one that chased her dog onto her porch.
Dutton said the commission could have allowed more hunting in the 1980s, when the alligator population had rebounded enough to sustain it. Now officials know for sure that more hunting won't decimate the population, he said.
"It's not so much that the alligator has recovered, because it was always pretty strong in the core areas of its remote habitat," Dutton said. "A lot of people think it was down to the level of the condor, but it was never that imperiled."
More hunting could mean smaller gators and a sharp drop in the population in a limited area, said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife scientist. But the population can sustain it, he said.
"It shows how successful management has been," Mazzotti said. "The days of seeing the overall state goal with increasing the alligator population are probably gone. Now we're looking at having a sustainable population and reducing it in part in areas because of safety concerns."
If the commission allows homeowners to hire trappers, they probably would pay much more than the $30 a gator that trappers receive from the state, Dutton said. Trappers also can sell the meat and hide.
Lake Worth trapper Rick Kramer expressed concern that some amateurs would try to do the job on their own.
"You'll have a lot of hurt people and injured gators running around," said Kramer, who has trapped gators for 12 years and whose father was a trapper. "You make a mistake with an alligator, and it can do some damage."
Most trappers don't want the changes, he said.
If the commission buys the recommendations, the state will have public meetings early next year.
The changes wouldn't go over well with everyone, Dutton said. The survey gathered responses from a few people who wanted to end all alligator hunting, a few who wanted to exterminate all gators and a broad swath in the middle.
"When you talk about alligators, like when you talk about anything emotional, you have a core middle group and an obvious fringe group," he said.
The commission also plans to launch a public-education campaign about alligators. The key is understanding Florida residents' unusual relationship with the animals, Mazzotti said. He's conducting another survey on Sanibel Island and in parks such as the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge west of Boynton Beach.
"We did a similar survey with crocodiles," he said. "Most people would rather not see a crocodile killed in response to complaints about them. At the same time, people don't want to have crocodiles in their back yards. You have to develop a management program around that."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2006/10/31/m1a_ALLIGATORS_1031.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) 31 October 06 Survey: Public wants a shot (literally) at gators (Robert Nolin)
With the annual alligator hunting season ending today, wildlife officials posted the results of an online survey measuring the public's attitude on how the state handles its big lizards.
The main suggestions: 'Some people felt that we should consider removing them from the imperiled species list; others said we should provide alligator hunting opportunities. Others said, `If I've got an alligator in my yard you ought to let me take care of it,'' said Henry Cabbage, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Tallahassee.
The suggestions are just that, Cabbage said, and don't rise to the level of policy change. Posted Monday, they will be reviewed by the wildlife commission in December. 'The commission will say to either pursue or don't pursue any or all of these suggestions,' Cabbage said. Any possible changes to state alligator policy will occur only over time and after a series of public hearings, Cabbage said. 'There is no proposal to reclassify alligators at this point,' he said.
The 45-question survey was on the wildlife agency's Web site from Sept. 19-29. It generated 638 responses, 65 percent from the general public and the rest from researchers, gator trappers or alligator industry officials.
'Overall, respondents indicated that the current approach to alligator management ... was about right,' reported alligator coordinator Harry Dutton.
Dutton wrote that 47 percent of respondents thought there were too many alligators in Florida, while an identical percentage said their population was too low.
Gators number about 1.5 million statewide, and are no longer considered endangered. Some survey respondents thought they should lose their status as a species of special concern. 'Now that their population has expanded the way it has, that might be appropriate to consider,' Cabbage said.
Other respondents thought homeowners should be able to handle nuisance gators themselves rather than call a state-certified trapper. 'If it's my yard I have the right to protect my property and family and shoot it,' one wrote.
'That might have worked in 1950,' Cabbage said, 'but whether it would work now, I can't say.'
The state's annual alligator hunt started Aug. 15 and concludes today. Officials sold 4,406 permits to hunters, but it may be weeks before they tally hides to calculate how many gators were harvested. The hunt this year was uneventful.
'It's going very well,' Cabbage said.
http://www.topix.net/content/trb/0554013546192637823014258654181452284219

FLORIDA TODAY (Melbourne) 02 November 06 Our view: Gator patrol - State should nix idea of letting people shoot reptiles in their backyards
There are good ideas and there are stupid ideas.
Here's a good idea:
State wildlife officials may overhaul Florida's alligator management plan by removing the reptiles from the imperiled species list and expanding hunting privileges.
That makes perfect sense and deserves approval, considering there are about 2 million gators in Florida and the species has come storming back from the brink of extinction in the 1960s.
Here's a stupid idea:
As part of the overhaul, the state could lift restrictions that make it illegal for a person to kill a nuisance gator on their property. Instead, they must call officials who send a trapper to remove the reptile.
This notion should be scrapped fast, because it would open the door to who-knows-what kind of backyard mayhem between people -- many, no doubt, armed with loaded weapons -- and the dangerous reptiles.
The current policy, which is designed to minimize human risk, works well and there's no reason to change it.
State officials will make their final recommendations in December, and some changes could take effect late next year.
We trust saner heads will prevail, and the Dodge City approach will be nixed.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061102/OPINION/611020318/1004