NEWS-PRESS (Fort Myers, Florida) 30 October 05 Be on lookout for baby gators - Striped youngsters can now be found all over Southwest Florida (Amy Bennett Williams)
A baby alligator sits on it's mother's back at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary on Friday. The 7-8 foot mother alligator was protecting about 16 of it's young at the lettuce garden of the Sanctuary. The babies are about a month and a half old.
Although many of us associate spring with baby animals, in Southwest Florida at least one well-known species takes to the nursery when autumn arrives.
Now is when the region's woods and wet places are crawling with baby alligators, most of which hatched last month.
That makes the next month or so a prime time to catch a glimpse of mamas and their stripey broods.
Babies will hitch rides on their mothers' backs or bask on their heads. Sometimes, mom will open wide to let the youngsters hop inside so she can take them somewhere, says Richard Finkel, an environmental educator with the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation, where gator babies can sometimes be spotted along its Sanibel River trail.
Collier County's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary offers great gator-watching from its boardwalk at this time of year.
Another good spot to go gator-watching is on the Calusa Nature Center's Wildlands Trails near the canal that runs along the Winkler linear park.
Of course, the problem with al fresco observation is that there are no guarantees, says Finkel, but that's part of the fun.
If you want a sure-fire sighting — maybe even a chance to touch one — there are several places that keep baby gators in cages and tanks, including the nature center and the Imaginarium in Fort Myers. Both have regularly scheduled educational presentations that let visitors get up close and personal.
"Sometimes (people) are a little reluctant at first," says Joe Mulvihill, a volunteer at the nature center. "But usually they love it."
Be on lookout for baby gators