SUN NEWS (Myrtle Beach, Florida) 02 June 03 Gators startle but rarely a threat - DNR gears up for peak months (Kelly Marshall)
Reports of an 11-foot alligator blocking traffic on U.S. 17 North sent biologists scrambling to the scene last week.
The 400-pound alligator had crawled back into the woods near Huntington Beach State Park by the time Dean Cain, an officer with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, arrived.
"The report was that he was stopping traffic," Cain said. "I think he was more on the side of the road and people were stopping and looking."
Clashes between gators and humans have increased along the Grand Strand as development has taken over much of their former territory. The local tourism season also collides with their breeding season, a time when the alligators search for new territory and a place to nest from May until June.
This year, 60 alligator complaints have been called in to the regional DNR office in the Samworth Wildlife Management Center. It's startling for people but rarely dangerous. Eight alligator attacks have happened in South Carolina in the past 28 years, none of them fatal.
"You've got a whole gamut of outdoor activities [going on] out there," said Mark Bara, a wildlife biologist at Samworth. "We have had some population changes in our area."
A 7-foot alligator was removed last month from an area near a restaurant in Murrells Inlet, Bara said. A 10-foot alligator was taken from the ocean at 82nd Avenue North in Myrtle Beach on May 18. Another alligator, about 6 feet long, was removed May 24 from a pond on Vista Drive in Garden City Beach. Vista Drive residents were feeding the alligator and trying to catch it with a fishing net before DNR officers relocated the reptile.
At least 12 alligator complaints were received in one day at the regional DNR office in Georgetown last week. Permits were issued for the removal of about six alligators, said Melissa Lewis, an administrative assistant at the regional center.
To determine whether to respond to a call, Lewis grills callers about the size of the alligator and its proximity to humans. Lewis said DNR officers will not remove an alligator less than 6 feet long. They also don't remove alligators that pose no threat to humans.
Alligators sunning themselves in a back yard or swimming in a pond will stay where they are if they are not causing problems or drawing too much attention in a residential area.
Warm weather brings the animals out more, Lewis said, because the alligators need sunlight to help digest their food.
Lewis expects the number of alligator complaints will increase even more in June and July, when temperatures go up and the tourist season takes off.
"If it's hot, the alligators are going to stay out in the sunshine," she said. "That is their habitat, and we're building right on top of it."
Gators startle but rarely a threat