DESTIN NEWS (Florida) 10 December 08 Later gator: Harmless creature loses his home (Timothy Mahar is an environmental “Defender” and Destin resident.)
I want my gator back.
He’s been living a nice quiet life in my lake for years. His mom apparently outgrew the place and took off a few years ago.
We miss her.
Make no mistake; this was certainly not “my” alligator. This was a wild born gator we’d noticed on the lake born to a far larger mom some years back. Most folks here never noticed them and they certainly never caused any commotion.
The large lake in the Twin Lakes subdivision is surrounded by natural vegetation and few properties even get near the water. The half a dozen acre lake is certainly large enough to handle a few small gators.
This lake is connected under Airport Road by a ditch, which in turn connects to Joe’s Bayou. I would guess our little fella was looking to find a larger place to live where he would be safe as he grew.
By getting out on the bay, he’d have been free to swim and look for a lake less surrounded by civilization, and where his eventual size would not be a problem.
So he was doing the right thing and moving on.
Unfortunately, he crossed a road at the wrong moment and got himself tied to a tree. This is hardly a fitting turn of events for a gator, a critter unchanged by evolution for 100 million years.
No exaggeration.
The very fact that he could be caught and tied up speaks to the idea that he was not a threat. The number of children or dogs chased down and eaten by 4-foot gators in Florida is — ahem — zero.
A better plan of action would have been to make clear the path the gator was trying to take and to encourage him to keep moving. Tying him up to a tree in a subdivision only makes him defenseless, unable to escape unwanted attention and forced to defend himself — something humans would perceive as aggression.
So now he has a new home, whether he wanted it or not. Hopefully he will be happy there.
If there is any consolation here, it is this: That gator is now far from anyone who would tie him up.
I realize the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has to walk a tightrope between the safety of animals and the perceptions of humans, but I hope in the future they can take a different course and side more with the animal and delicately educate the humans a bit more.
This small 4-foot gator, the size you can hold in your arms, was no threat to anyone and should have been allowed to continue on his way unhindered. If a path needed to be cleared, or traffic stopped, then so be it. Gators were here first.
We built in their yard, forcing them out. We should be respectful when they try to move on.
If I tied a gator to a tree, I’d expect to be cited for it. This is because according to Florida Statue 372.63 it is illegal to attempt to possess or capture an American alligator (alligator mississippiensis). The penalty for this felony in the third degree is a theoretical $5,000 fine and imprisonment not to exceed five years.
Now I don’t believe this fellow intended to keep the gator, obviously, and I don’t mean to imply he should be penalized. My point is the gator should never have been deprived of his freedom in the first place.
Gators do live here among us in Destin, and most of them go entirely unnoticed by us. Here is a case of a small, still young alligator crossing an obstacle we’d placed between two of his watery hangouts as well as his watery path to freedom. By stopping him, we do not allow him his freedom.
We all need to educate ourselves and others about those creatures living here with us.
Just getting outside we realize we live in a special place with greater variety of wildlife than many realize. Whether they are coyotes, snakes, sharks, or the occasional stray alligator, all species are deserving of our respect.
I’m going to miss the little guy. He was quiet. And I rarely saw him. Just knowing he was there was good enough.
Later gator: Harmless creature loses his home