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CITRUS COUNTY CHRONICLE (Crystal River, Florida) 03 December 06 Agency mulls changes to alligator regulations (Terry Witt)
Preserving healthy alligator populations in Florida doesn’t seem like a subject that would rile most people, much less cause arguments at the dinner table.
And it hasn’t.
But the state’s wildlife protection agency wants to take a fresh look at alligators and has enlisted the help of the public in figuring out how to better manage the toothy swamp critters.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has been managing alligators as a protected species since 1988, but their numbers are increasing. Do they need protection?
Agency scientists estimate more than one million alligators live in Florida.
FWC recently conducted an online survey that found about half of the 638 participants thought alligator numbers were too high in the state and about half thought they were about right. However, 58 percent believed FWC should empower citizens to have greater input as to how local alligator populations are managed.
FWC will discuss the results of the online survey when it meets in Key Largo on Dec. 6 and 7.
Although no rule changes are on the table, the survey revealed some Floridians would like more flexibility in alligator hunting and nuisance alligator removal. Alligator hunting opportunities currently are limited, and nuisance alligator removal requires a permit.
Florida classifies alligators as a species of special concern, but some survey responses called for removing them from the state’s imperiled species list and reclassifying them as game animals. Gators were once hunted until their populations fell into decline.
However, Harry Dutton, alligator management program coordinator for FWC, said alligator populations rebounded when the federal government stopped interstate transportation of black market gator hides harvested by poachers.
“Clearly, it’s not a species on the brink of extinction,” said Harry Dutton, alligator management program coordinator for FWC.
Any change in gator management regulation would require numerous public hearings and an extensive scientific study by FWC.
Agency mulls changes to alligator regulations

MIAMI HERALD (Florida) 07 December 06 Commission may take a bite out of alligator protections - Wildlife managers considered new rules that could take a bite out of the state's booming population of alligators. (Curtis Morgan)
With large reptiles increasingly lurking as unwelcome guests in suburban lakes and canals, Florida wildlife managers decided Wednesday it's time to rethink the rules of alligator engagement.
That doesn't mean it may be OK soon to whip out the Glock and blast away at a scaly intruder sunning in the backyard -- an option favored by some respondents to a recent online survey conducted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
But it could give hunters more time and ways to target gators and make it easier and faster for homeowners to take them out -- if not with a gun or snare, then by hiring private wranglers instead of asking the state to send trappers.
While any decisions remain at least a year and many public hearings off, it's clear alligators in Florida are likely to lose some protections that have helped the population surge in the past 40 years from scarce to scary, a reputation powerfully enhanced by three fatal attacks on humans in a single week in May.
Harry Dutton, the commission's alligator management coordinator, cited one overarching goal for the first major review of statewide gator policies in two decades: ''Don't let the the alligator population grow unchecked'' -- particularly in places also heavily populated by people.
The state, responding to complaints from homeowners and others, already annually kills some 7,000 ''nuisance'' alligators, a label applied to any gator larger than 4 feet considered a threat to people or pets. Until this year, gator attacks were relatively rare -- just 17 fatalities since 1948.
But there are now so many alligators -- more than 1 million, spread across all 67 counties -- that wildlife managers also recommend reclassifying them within five years from a protected ''species of special concern'' to ''game.'' That's the designation given to the state's most popular hunting quarries: deer, hog and turkey.
This year, wildlife managers extended an annual gator hunt to 11 weeks, resulting in a record haul of nearly 6,000 animals, more than double the total from five years ago.
''Let's put it this way. The children and poodles of the state are sleeping a lot better. We knocked them out,'' said Phil Walters, a gator hunting guide from Tampa, one of several hunters who supported loosening current rules.
The harvest almost certainly would rise with new proposals to open more state lands to trapping, extend the season, eliminate size and quota limits and possibly use a wider array of weaponry. Now, sport and commercial hunters have to catch gators with rope snares before dispatching them with a bang-stick, a pole that discharges a shotgun shell on impact.
One environmental group, Audubon of Florida, sent a letter to the commission this week calling the recommendations vague and driven by sociological concerns without appropriate biological review.
Jerry Lorenz, research director of Audubon's science center in Tavernier, warned that more hunting could harm wetlands, which alligators play a key role in maintaining, and expose crocodiles, an endangered species frequently mistaken for alligators, to harm from confused hunters.
The seven-member commission must approve any changes. Members stressed they were a long way from declaring an open season.
They described the proposals, drawn up based on results from a September online survey, as only preliminary. Formal recommendations are expected in June.
Commissioner R.A. ''Herky'' Huffman, for one, said he would never approve of suburbanites taking on a predator that can snap bones with its tail and jaws.
After experiencing his first alligator hunt with Walters, he said he wasn't so sure about giving inexperienced trappers an easier crack at them either.
''I could have gotten hurt that night. Man, we just can't open this thing wide open . . .,'' he said. ``It's one thing to throw a net over a three-foot iguana, it's another thing to tackle a 10-foot alligator.''
Commission may take a bite out of alligator protections