South Florida is the only place on the planet where crocodiles and alligators occur naturally. While crocodiles were critically endangered at one time. They are quickly being restored to their natural range. The mayor of one of the keys asked that all crocs be removed from his key after a croc jumped out of the water and ate a Labrador off of a doc 3' above the water. Crocs think dogs taste like coyotes without the gamey taste.
Anyway, here is a video of a croc walking in a neighborhood:
http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/lo...rhood-trapped/
And the story about the mayor wanting crocs removed from Islamarada.
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/152028865.html
The story about the dog that is referenced in the above story.
http://keysnews.com/node/38726
It should be noted that these crocs are not aggressive towards people. But, they are more than capable of taking large mammals and do so in the rest of their natural range. A little respect of that ability goes a long way in preventing tragedy.
I had a neighbor that had a pot bellied pig that he had trained to go into the canal to do it's business. I said that we have always had big gators in that canal and that they had come out of the water and taken a huge dog off of it's chain in the yard next door. All this gut was doing was teaching a pig to wave bacon in front of alligators. He didn't listen and the pig went a missin!
I was just telling a story about when we were kids in my mom's neighborhood. We would hang our heads down from the bridge that was about three feet above the water and look for this 12' alligator which liked to stay in the culvert pipe that ran under the bridge. If we didn't see the gator one or two of us would volunteer to walk through the culvert pipe to make sure the gator was not there. If he wasn't there or visible we could "safely" swim in the water.
We also had a floating raft anchored in the middle of the canal that the gator would sun itself on. Throwing rocks at the gator until it got off of the deck and into the water. Then you would swim all out to the deck and scramble on.
How we survived I have no idea. LOL
Bookmarks