Photo: Preston Carter of Animal Capture of Florida in Tampa pulls an alligator from an Aylesford subdivision pond less than a mile from East Lake Road on Monday.
ST PETERSBURG TIMES (Florida) 12 August 03 Fishing trappers land an alligator
Trappers say the reptiles are more mobile now: Heavy rains have linked wet areas, creating highways for gators. (Shannon Tan)
East Lake: The rain keeps coming down - and the alligators are moving.
Out of the lakes and streams. Perhaps into a retention pond and swimming pool near you.
The warm weather makes them frisky, and their search for food and territory sometimes draws them to residential areas.
Trappers are swamped with calls about nuisance alligators. But it hasn't been easy finding the reptiles.
"Given the amount of humidity, these guys can now disperse over miles and miles," said Louis Guillette Jr., a University of Florida zoology professor.
A dry spell in the past four or five years meant the gators generally stayed put.
Oddly, said Charles Carpenter, manager of Animal Capture of Florida, the rain does not bring them out immediately. It's when the rains pause that the reptiles get active.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission contracts with the Tampa company to catch nuisance alligators in Pinellas County.
On Monday, two trappers from the company caught a 7-foot 10-inch alligator in a pond in the Aylesford subdivision, less than a mile from East Lake Road. Children fish in that pond, and residents complained that the gator had been trying to eat their bait.
Carpenter said his trappers also caught a 6-foot-1-incher in a Lake Tarpon tributary.
But the gators are elusive. On Sunday, trappers responded to 14 complaints but didn't see a single one.
"We have not been finding the alligators," said Carpenter, whose company handles an average of 40 complaints at any given time. "The complaint is lodged and the weather changes, and they disappear. Then we have to wait for the weather to change again."
The creatures are highly mobile now because rain has reconnected formerly isolated wet areas.
And then, said Carpenter, there's the drainage system. Subdivision retention ponds are often connected by drainage pipes that create a convenient highway for alligators to move invisibly from pond to pond.
This mobility makes it hard for Carpenter's three trappers, who have captured 120 alligators this year.
Carpenter said he answers complaints based on geography and whether it's an emergency, such as when an alligator is near children.
"It puts us in a position where we can answer 10 calls in a few hours rather than one or two calls the whole day," he said.
The company, which is not paid by the state to respond to complaints, covers its overhead by selling the alligator skins and meat. Carpenter says the market for those items is weak these days.
And "if we don't catch anything, it comes out of my own pocket," he said.
Carpenter and the wildlife commission doesn't think more trappers are needed.
"The system isn't broke," said Gary Morse, commission spokesman. "We've never had a person injured because we failed to trap a specific alligator or we failed to contact the people soon enough."
About 40 private trappers are contracted to remove nuisance alligators throughout the state.
The agency's Lakeland office receives 75 to 100 complaints a day for the 12-county area that includes Pinellas.
Last year, there were 4,596 such complaints - 31 percent of the total statewide. After all, more than 1.5-million adult alligators share Florida with 16-million residents.
About half of the complaints lead to actual nuisance gators.
Other complaints are about alligators that are minding their own business, and not a threat. They often leave those alone.
An alligator sunning itself in your back yard probably isn't a problem, Morse said. But try to smack it with a broom and you're asking for trouble.
"These animals are dangerous but not evil," said Guillette, the zoologist. He said that come October and November, when it gets cooler and drier, the alligators will move back to large lakes.
"It's been going on for centuries," Guillette said.
Tips on how to avoid problems with alligators
Do not feed or entice alligators. It is illegal and can make them lose their fear of humans.
Do not feed other wildlife near the water. Alligators do not know you are not intentionally feeding them.
Do not swim, walk dogs or let small children play at night or dusk along the shoreline of water known to contain alligators.
Do not try to remove alligators from their natural habitat or try to keep one as a pet. Both are against the law.
- Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission
To file a complaint about nuisance alligators, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission toll-free at 1-888-404-FWCC.
ishing trappers land an alligator
