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GLOBE & MAIL (Toronto, Ontario) 31 October 06 Florida may ease restrictions on killing alligators
West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP): Florida wildlife officials are considering removing alligators from a list of protected imperilled species and letting homeowners deal with nuisance gators themselves.
Officials estimate the state currently has more than 1 million alligators.
The proposed regulation changes were posted Monday on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Web site and will be considered at the commission's December meeting.
The changes would downgrade gators from a species of special concern to a game animal within five years and then remove them altogether from the state's list of imperilled animals.
That could lift restrictions that now make it illegal for homeowners to kill nuisance alligators on their property. Currently, they must contact the commission, which contracts with a trapper to remove the gator.
More alligators also could be killed over an extended period if the changes are approved. Under the current protections, each hunter is allowed only two gator kills per permit.
State alligator co-ordinator Harry Dutton said Tuesday the potential changes have nothing to do with the three fatal alligator attacks that occurred in one month earlier this year.
“I wish the three fatalities didn't happen, and if they didn't, this would still be going on,” he said. “It's just a timely thing to do.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061031.walligator1031/BNStory/International/home

VANCOUVER SUN (British Columbia) 11 November 06 Flood of new residents has Florida battling growing number of gators (Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post)
Miami: More than 18,000 times last year, Florida wildlife biologists heard a complaint about an alligator.
There's a gator swimming in our lake.
There's a gator sunning itself in my back yard.
There's a gator that ate my dog.
Now, as more and more of the reptiles once prized as endangered are being tagged by Floridians as nuisances, the state wildlife commission is considering rules that would make it easier to trap and kill the black, scaly creatures slumbering on suburban patios. Some proposals might allow homeowners to trap the animals themselves, rather than calling in state-hired trappers. Other ideas include altering the animal's legal status from "species of special concern" to "game," and allowing more extensive hunting.
The state population of alligators is estimated at more than one million.
"People recognize now that we have a lot of alligators and they are in no way threatened," said Lindsey Hord, biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Alligator Management Program. "We don't need to be as tolerant of alligators in urban areas because we do have lots of alligators in wild areas -- I mean lots of them."
The number of alligator complaints has been rising steadily in recent years, less because of an increase in the alligator population than because of the steady flow of complainants -- people -- moving into Florida. The human population has increased 11 per cent -- nearly two million new residents -- over the past five years.
In 2005, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission received more than 18,000 alligator complaints. Trappers removed more than 7,700, according to commission statistics.
"We build thousands of homes every year in the wetlands, and now we're up to our ears in alligators and we wonder why," said Todd Hardwick, a trapper who handles more than 100 gator complaints a year in South Florida for state officials.
The suburban fear of alligators blossomed this year with three fatalities believed to be alligator incidents, one confirmed officially.
The danger may be far less significant than the headlines suggest. The recorded number of unprovoked alligator bites -- that is, those not involving trappers or those who handle the animals professionally -- was only seven in 2005, according to state statistics.
Floridians' attitudes toward alligators have undergone profound changes in recent decades. Many native Floridians remember swimming in ponds where alligators lived. In this more safety-conscious era, folks take a more cautious approach.
After poaching and over-harvesting depressed the population to low levels in the 1960s, alligators were placed on the list of endangered species. Their numbers are believed to have since risen dramatically.