GAINESVILLE SUN (Florida) 30 November 05 Gators' diets varied enough - don't add to it (Nathan Crabbe)
The nearly 12-foot-long, 300-pound alligator had already bitten off one man's arm when gator-trapper Bobby Bass fell out of his boat and on top of the reptile.
He escaped unharmed after just a few seconds in the water. But he couldn't escape the memory for weeks.
"That kind of stuck with me," he said.
Bass and his stepson, Patrick Williams, trap nuisance alligators in Alachua County and nine other counties in the region. When alligators get too comfortable approaching people, Bass and Williams deal with the consequences.
Wildlife officials say that's why two recent incidents involving an alligator on the University of Florida campus are no laughing matter. In two consecutive days in October, an alligator crawled out of Lake Alice to devour chicken dinners of people picnicking close to the shore.
As a result, Bass and Williams ended up having to kill the alligator.
An incident at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in September 2002 shows how such incidents can turn dangerous. Don Goodman, the director of the gardens, was weeding a pond there when an alligator tore off his right forearm.
Bass and Williams were called to kill the gator nicknamed MoJo. After Bass recovered from his fall, he finished harpooning the reptile until it was killed. Goodman's arm was recovered but was too damaged to be re-attached.
Alachua County residents have to be especially careful, said Woody Woodward, who studies alligators at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission's Gainesville office. The county has three of the state's best lakes for gators: Newnan's Lake, Lake Lochloosa and Orange Lake.
Thankfully, he said, those lakes are generally not popular for swimming. While there have been 18 fatal gator attacks on people statewide in the past 30 years, he said, pets are a bigger risk of becoming a gator meal here.
To prove the point, there's a dog tag on display at the office that reads, "Leave me alone and I'll go home." The tag was found in a gator's stomach.
The board includes other unusual items found during commission research into alligator eating habits. There's another dog tag that says "My name is Blackie," as well as shotgun shells, lighters and wildlife bands that marked birds.
"As you can see, they have poor taste," said Michael Delaney, another researcher at the office.
An alligator's range is typically within five feet of the water's edge, Woodward said. Gators usually lurk silently looking for smaller creatures, which can include a pet, small child or crouching person.
"You have to be very aware if you're on a body of water," Woodward said.
Twice last year, Gainesville dog owners fended off alligators to save their pets from being eaten.
In June 2004, a gator grabbed a German short-haired pointer near Oak Forest Apartments before the pet's owner fought the alligator and it released the animal.
Then in August of that year, a gator bit a bloodhound/Shar-Pei mix at Kanapaha Park before the pet's owner stabbed the reptile in the eye with a pocket knife and scared it off.
The dogs survived with injuries, but others aren't so lucky. Bass recalls a man who was playing fetch with his Labrador retriever, throwing a tennis ball into Biven's Arm. Eventually the dog didn't come back, and Bass was called to kill the gator that ate it.
Woodward said people who feed alligators endanger more than just themselves. Giving those alligators reason to come out of the water when humans are around puts other people and their pets at risk, he said.
"You do not want to encourage them at all," he said.
Gators' diets varied enough - don't add to it