Although I’ve spent twenty seven years in Florida and Alligators are everywhere, I’m still adjusting to living with them in our neighborhood. We live next to a large piece of conservation (also known as Florida swamp) and for many months I would walk Jason and Leah around a nearby lake. The lake has a lot of traffic and the neighbors I encounter have no fear of the teenage gator pictured above. He usually comes out on an early morning walk or a walk around dusk.  When I see him in the middle of the lake, I usually just get Jason back in the stroller.

I spoke with the man who cares for the lake (on his john boat) and asked if there was cause for concern.  He told me that the teenager wouldn’t bother us (but couldn’t give it to me in writing) and that he removed NINE adult gators from the lake last year.  This should be reassuring, but the conservation we live on is about 12 miles long and a few miles wide…I know that there are more in there.

The nearby park that we go to also rests on nearby lakes (Land O’Lakes is just what it sounds like), it also has a sign that read “please do not molest the alligators”. Seeing the sign made me realize that I did not want to take on an alligator, of any size. It made me rethink my morning walk… I’m going to consider it a loss for team lake walk and one for team alligator and take my gator bait off of the path. It was a nice wide open space that I could let the dog run on and we will miss it, hopefully she will let me make up for it with ball time.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission estimates that 1.25 million wild alligators live in Florida. Each year they remove approximately 7,000 nuisance alligators (usually they are just unwanted).