Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum What's the furthest north you have seen a gator?

They’ve been seen in Tuscaloosa several times
One was ran over a few years ago crossing the toll road at the swamp

Very common between Decatur and Huntsville.

I guess we’re not gonna get to hear about the upside to the ecosystem from the pro-gator crowd…….

It may be because they’re working 14-16 hours days with a Guatemalan hand crew and this ain’t a priority. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I'm with Outback. The gators were here first. We just have to learn to live in their world and not the other way around. They play an important role in the ecosystem. If this means your little Johnny or Susie can't swim or play in the waters in certain areas, so be it. I don't see all the Cajuns around Venice complaining about it.

You're killing me Fancy.......

Statements like that amaze me. It's not their world, its ours. People are most important, especially over some overgrown lizard.

You know what would make for a funny Far Side cartoon........Picture a group of primitive Neanderthals standing around in a hunting group and then there's one retarded one off to the side holding up a "Co-exist" sign with a Saber tooth Tiger on it.... I dont why I thought of that

Alligators are as abundant as mosquitoes around here. Everywhere you look there are gators. A couple months ago Raven and I was outside and she ran up to me with that stupid look she gets when something ain’t right. She takes off and runs under the house. I hear her barking and raising hell and as I get closer I hear a loud hissing sound. As I get down to look I see it’s an alligator. Raven has it cornered and I holler her name and she goes in for the kill. Well being a rookie gator killer, she grabbed it by the tail. The gator spun around a latched on to her shoulder. This is when the circus started and I went to laughing. She quickly turned the gator loose but the gator wouldn’t turn her loose and she wasn’t real sure what to do or which way to go. She finally spun the gator off of her. Now she’s really pissed off but ain’t real sure what to do. She’s barking, growling, and making sure she keeps a safe distance from its mouth. She corners it again and I’m able to get under the house and grab it. Well now that I have control of the gator, Raven gets real brave now and decides to attack the gator in my hands. Ok, I’m not a small, agile individual and I’m on my hands and knees trying to control the gator and keep Raven the gator killer away. It’s a total chit show!! I finally make it out from under the house and the gator, myself, and Raven are full of red dirt. I’m walking around with the gator in my hands looking for a rope and the whole time Raven is trying to tear this thing apart. I get a rope and tie the mouth shut and hobble it so it can’t get away. I set it on the ground and now Raven won’t get within 6’ of the gator. Ya she’s a bad dog!! I grab it to put it on the 4 wheeler and Raven the gator killer shows back up. Now she’s brave again. I load it up and bring it out back to a canal and chunk it in there. It’s always an adventure around here.

Dang......read some of those stories about how each one happened.....

"The victim was canoeing with her husband in about 2.5 ft (0.76 m) of water when their canoe passed over a large alligator. The alligator thrashed and tipped the canoe over, throwing the couple into the water. The victim was subsequently bitten and pulled underwater by the alligator. Her body was later recovered from the water by authorities who captured two alligators that evening, one measuring 11 ft 4 in (3.45 m) long, and a second measuring approximately 10–11 ft (3.0–3.4 m) long.[4]"

"The victim was in her backyard in a gated Sun City community in Bluffton, and was attacked by a nearly 10 ft (3.0 m)-long alligator. The victim's body was found being guarded by the alligator and was later recovered."

"The victim fell into a pond along a golf course and was attacked by two alligators"

"The victim was walking her dog next to a pond at the Spanish Lakes Fairways retirement community. The alligator first attacked the dog and when the woman tried to save the dog, she too was attacked. The dog survived"

"Dragged to her death while walking her dog near a golf course in the gated community of Sea Pines in Hilton Head. Witnesses said Cline was attempting to protect her dog when the alligator pulled her into a lagoon. The dog was unharmed"

"Dragged to her death and dismembered while walking dogs at the Silver Lake Rotary Nature Park in Davie"

A few more.........

"Florida, Seminole County, near Oviedo, Econlockhatchee River — She was cooling off in a river in Little Big Econ State Forest near the Barr Street Trailhead after a hike and was attacked. Her arms were seriously injured and she died on the way to hospital."

"The victim was attacked while trying to retrieve frisbee golf discs in the lake at John S. Taylor Park. Police believed McGuinness had entered the lake during nighttime hours, as his body did not appear to have been in the lake for a long period when a person walking their dog discovered it along the shoreline with its arm torn off around 8 a.m"

"An alligator, 4 to 7 feet (1.2 to 2.1 m) long, dragged the victim under water in the Seven Seas Lagoon about 9:00 p.m. on June 14, 2016, at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa just outside of Orlando. His parents tried to rescue him; the father was attacked by a second alligator. The victim's body was found nearby the next day, intact and apparently drowned."

"He was killed in a pond near his residence in Venice, Sarasota County by an 8 ft 4 in (2.54 m) alligator. Wetmore suffered from dementia and had wandered from his home."

"Florida — She was killed by one or more alligators at Lake Serenity, Sumter County. She died of a broken neck caused by an alligator bite to the throat and head"

But hey......they sure have those gar under control.

Just a few facts to burst that gator bubble.

Total gator fatalities from RideRanger's list. From 1/1/20 - 8/1/26, 25.5 yrs, there were 33 total fatalities. That's a national average of 1.29 alligator related deaths/yr.

Now lets look at some other fairly related issues.

Total fishing related fatalities per year. AI says that the number of fishing related fatalities averages around 200/yr (Fishing should be banned). The number of boating related fatalities averages 556/yr (all boating should be banned).

Now the ones that hit home, to most everyone on this site:
Since 2000, the number of deer vs car collision fatalities has averaged between 150 and 440/yr (using gator logic, we should probably exterminate all deer)
Since 2000, the number of firearm related hunting fatalities has averaged between 75 and 100/yr (Dems may be onto something here, we can ban all guns, or outlaw all hunting. Y'alls choice on this one)
Since 2000, the number of hunting fatalities inclusive of both firearms, slip and falls, and treestand related accidents has averaged 300-500/yr. (hunting is inherently dangerous, ban all hunting)

Gator attacks and gator fatalities are so low on the list that we should probably just ignore them. You're actually 4.7 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be killed by a gator during your lifetime. Lighting strike odds 1 in 650,000. Odds of being killed by an alligator 1 in 3,100,000. Plus, the gators keep the gars and turtles under control.

If you want to compare alligator deaths apples to apples to deer/car collisions then lets have everyone get in the water and swim around and see if the rate goes up any……..That would be the equivalent to comparing it to everyone driving up and down the road dodging deer…..Again,……and I know it wasn’t skipped over by accident …….but the main reason there arent more alligator fatalities is because folks lost their ability to get in the water without fear of being eaten…….

Here’s the thing about it. We’re on a slow projection upward with gator populations where they are just continuing to take a little more ground and a little more ground……What’s the end game??.....To just let their populations keep growing until there ARE gators in Lake Martin and Guntersville and Weiss and Smith and so on to the point that you risk getting eaten if you get too close to the water??……At what point do we shut down this growth??..... I’m guessing that the residents of Lake Martin arent quite ready to start living like backwoods Cajuns just yet…..

That would have been aldeer gold if you could've videoed that encounter! Raven's shoulder heal up okay?

There's a reason we are the apex predators. It's because we are collectively smarter than all the other animals, but because we all have consciousness, we also have empathy and think that maybe we shouldn't kill off everything that could challenge our status.

Funny thing is... If a Crocodiles, Tigers, Lions, Big Apes, Sharks, etc... Could indiscriminately kill us all and eat every last one of us, they wouldn't think twice about it.

Seen several on Wheeler while fishing.