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THE SUN (Myrtle Beach, S Carolina) 18 September 07 Remain wary of gators - S.C. attacks rare, but officials warn against contact (Tonya Root)
An alligator attack on a human, such as the one that ripped the arm off a snorkeler in the Charleston area over the weekend, is highly unusual, according to experts on the Grand Strand, where gators flourish in waterways and - occasionally - golf course and neighborhood ponds.
There have been no confirmed deaths in South Carolina involving an alligator attack, state wildlife officials said. Statewide, officials have received nine reports of alligators that have bitten people in the 28 years that Department of Natural Resources records have been kept. That includes Sunday's incident, said Sam Chappelear, the DNR's wildlife regional coordinator for Region 4, which includes all of South Carolina's coastal counties.
Bill Hedden of Summerville, a retired master chief with the U.S. Navy, was snorkeling in Lake Moultrie at the Short Stay Navy Outdoor Recreation Area when the 550-pound alligator tore his arm from his shoulder.
Hedden, 59, stumbled into a party of picnickers with his arm missing and blood gushing from his wound. Five nurses were among those at the gathering and put ice on his wound and kept him awake until paramedics could arrive.
His arm was retrieved from the belly of the 11-foot-10-inch alligator after wildlife officers shot the animal. The limb was rushed to the Medical University of South Carolina in an ice cooler with a police escort, but officials said Monday efforts to reattach the arm were unsuccessful.
The hospital released a statement late Monday from Hedden's relatives that thanked the doctors and nurses caring for him, and the people who assisted when he first emerged from the lake after the attack.
"The first order of Bill's care has been to stop the bleeding and save his life. His surgeons and health care team are determining the next steps in his care at this time," said the statement, which did not mention Hedden's medical condition. "We are in good spirits and thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers."
It's unclear how Hedden came to be attacked on Sunday.
"We don't know exactly what happened yesterday," Chappelear said Monday from his Charleston office. "We don't know if he startled the gator or if the gator mistook him for prey."
When people feed alligators over a period of time, it can make them less fearful and more likely to become aggressive toward humans, experts said.
"Previous bites involved gators who were fed and lost fear of humans or were accidentally provoked with people stepping on it underwater, but they were bites where the alligator let go with no tearing or major damage," Chappelear said.
The alligator involved in Sunday's incident was between 35 and 40 years old, he said. It had probably lived in those waters for many years.
"It's not like these gators pop up overnight; they've been there for a while," Chappelear said. "Something has to change for them. Those that have been fed that lose their fear of humans and are typically the ones where you suspect that type of behavior. If you know you're in gator-infested waters, there's always a first time for everything. We'd never had anything like this happen until [Sunday]."
Travis Correll, head lecturer for Alligator Adventure in North Myrtle Beach, has worked with alligators for 10 years and said once they're fed by humans, they associate humans with food.
"Alligators aren't blood-thirsty animals like many people make them out to be. It's when people start to interact with alligators is when people start to get hurt," Correll said.
Sharing the waterways
Five years ago, there were about 250,000 alligators in the wild throughout the state, Correll said. He was unsure what that figure would be today.
The state receives about 800 complaints annually about nuisance alligators and about 200 are removed and destroyed, Chappelear said.
"Virtually any waterway along the coast could potentially house an alligator and as development continues and their habitat is lost, they're going to go somewhere." Chappelear said.
Two years ago, officials revamped their removal program and now residents can seek a permit to remove a nuisance alligator from private property. Officials didn't have numbers on how many of these permits have been sought.
Officials are also working on legislation to allow regulated hunting of alligators, Chappelear said. The bill was passed by the Senate, but remains stalled in the House.
"There's no problem with admiring them from a safe distance. ... You have to keep in mind they are a wild animal and they should not be approached at any time," Correll said. "Just admire them and leave them alone. There's no reason to go poke it, there's no reason to attempt to go feed it."
Russell Cavender, better known in the area as The Snake Chaser, handles emergency DNR calls in Horry County.
"They're scared to death of people unless you start to feed them," he said. "Most likely this alligator has been fed by people, that's a professional guess here. ... He just probably assumed that the arm is attached to a piece of food."
Remain wary of gators

POST & COURIER (Charleston, S Carolina) 19 September 07 Editorial: A life saved, but deal with gators
The phrase "the right place at the right time" has rarely fit so well as it did Sunday when five local nurses just happened to be on the scene after a large alligator bit off a man's arm near his shoulder in Lake Moultrie. And when the General Assembly goes back into session in January, the time should be right for it to finally pass a law establishing an alligator hunting season in South Carolina.
As reported in The Post and Courier, the nurses had gone to the lake as part of a three-day religious celebration. Thus, one of the nurses understandably called "a miracle" their timely presence, roughly 50 yards from where 59-year-old Bill Hedden was attacked while snorkeling at the Short Stay recreation camp. A nurse's discovery of a towel during the emergency also was incredibly fortuitous.
Though Mr. Hedden lost his arm, he didn't lose his life — thanks to the nurses' decisive actions.
While the nurses' response was uplifting, the incident also offers a reminder of how important it is to take proper precautions when enjoying nature. Warning signs in the Short Stay area prohibit swimming and diving. Another sign reads: "Beware of Alligators."
Feeding alligators is another prohibited activity. When alligators are conditioned to associating humans with food, the dangers to the both species are significantly increased. When the alligator population rises, as it clearly has in our state over the last two decades, thinning their numbers by creating a hunting season makes sense.
Earlier this year, Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, who has witnessed Lake Moultrie's gator glut first-hand, introduced a bill to do just that. Modeled after Georgia's alligator-hunting season, it passed the Senate before getting hung up at the committee level in the House. Sen. Grooms told us Tuesday that he's confident it will make it all the way through in the next session.
In previous years the S.C. Department of Natural Resources had opposed a hunting season for alligators, which were removed from the federal endangered-species list two decades ago and are now classified as a "threatened" species. However, DNR scientists helped write Sen. Grooms' bill, which would mandate 1,000 permits for a month-long season. Sen. Grooms said the regulations governing the hunting season would be fine-tuned in coming years not by meddling legislators but by DNR experts, pointing out: "The bill would authorize them to make needed changes annually."
For now, though, the most needed change is for the Legislature to pass Sen. Grooms' bill so that the number of alligators in South Carolina — and the dangers they present — can be reduced. Meanwhile, Bill Hedden has ample reason to be thankful for those five nurses who were in the right place at the right time.
Editorial: A life saved, but deal with gators

THE TIMES (Georgetown, S Carolina) 19 September 07 Fears surface after rare 'gator attack (Georgia Williamson)
While the violent behavior displayed by a nearly 12-foot-long alligator over the weekend is considered rare, the attack on 59-year-old Bill Hedden has sparked a firestorm of concern about the number of large alligators in recreational areas, particularly lakes Moultrie and Marion.
While snorkeling in Lake Moultrie, Hedden, a retired master chief petty officer with the U.S. Navy, lost his left arm when he was bitten by a 550 pound, 11-foot, 10-inch alligator.
Hedden and crowds of others enjoying the outdoors were in the Short Stay Navy Outdoor Recreation Area which posts numerous signs warning the public to be aware of gators and asks park guests not to feed the reptiles.
Bleeding from his left shoulder, Hedden stumbled from the lake and was able to maintain consciousness as nurses picnicking in the area attended to the Summerville resident until he was airlifted to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
While Ron Russell, a trapper agent with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and other DNR and local law enforcement officers, were able to retrieve Hedden arm's intact from the alligator's stomach, doctors could not reattach the limb, a family member told The Post and Courier Monday.
Based on requests by the Hedden family, MUSC declined to comment on Hedden's condition Tuesday, but the family reported that he was in good spirits.
In the days that followed the attack, local and state-wide media picked up the story, interviewing worried residents and wildlife experts.
DNR spokesperson Sam Chappelear told The Times that officials "have no idea" why the 'gator attacked as Chappelear has not yet been able to interview Hedden the only person who witnessed the incident. Chappelear is the regional wildlife coordinator for DNR Region 4, which encompasses all of the state's coastal counties, including Georgetown and Horry counties.
Chappelear said that the alligator, who is estimated to have been 35 to 40-years-old, probably became accustomed to humans while living in the recreational area and associated humans with food.
"Potentially, circumstances are there that could cause an alligator to become used to humans. There is a potential that he (alligator) lost his fear of humans because he is used to getting food (from park guests)," Chappelear said. "They're (alligators) coming for a free meal. He's actually coming for a treat like a dog would."
While Chappelear said Short Stay Navy Outdoor Recreation Area does an excellent job of educating the public about the negative consequence of feeding alligators, parks "can't police everyone," he said.
According to Chappelear, there have only been nine reported alligator bites, including Hedden's, in South Carolina since the DNR began keeping records 28 years ago. There is no record of a fatality as a result of an alligator bite, but Chappelear called Hedden's injuries the worst alligator attack in South Carolina.
Chappelear said the eight other alligator incidents were a "bite and release" attack during which an alligator struck because it felt threatened. In one case, an alligator bit a man after he poked it with his golf club and in another incident an alligator bit a human after it was accidentally stepped on.
To address the public's concerns that there are too many large alligators visible in coastal areas, Chappelear said that people can help themselves by respecting alligators' space and not feeding them.
Chappelear also pointed to Senate Bill 452, which was created by the DNR at the request of the S.C. General Assembly. The bill, which has been passed by the Senate, outlines a hunting season on alligators.
Such a hunting season was once impossible as alligators were an endangered species, but as the population has rebounded and reports of alligators in South Carolina have increased, the General Assembly has sought out a method of "selective harvest.
"The bill states that the season would allow hunters to target larger gators that live near residences and other public-use areas, Chappelear said. The hunting season, as outlined in the bill, is similar to alligator hunting regulations practiced in Georgia.
Chappelear believes the House of Representative will also approve the bill, he said.If approved, DNR would regulate all alligator hunting, granting permits to a limited number of professional hunters who would hunt in specific game zones.
Fears surface after rare 'gator attack