AskFlorida
First time visiting Florida and I saw an 'Alligator Warning' sign right next to a public walking path... am I supposed to just walk past like this is normal?! 😭🐊
I was taking a morning walk here in Florida and saw a sign warning about gators in a pond right next to the public trail!
I literally stood there for 2 minutes staring at a gator near the water thinking it was a fake plastic statue... until it blinked at me. Meanwhile, local Floridians were casually jogging past it listening to music like it was a squirrel! 😭
As a New Yorker, I am terrified. Do they jump?! Do they run fast?! What is the actual local rule here... do I run or just ignore them? 🥺
Yeah, it's perfectly normal. Just don't get anywhere near the water and keep an eye out for any logs that look like they might eat you and you'll be fine.
This reminds me of a story my brother told me. He was around 7 years old, down in Miami, and was skipping rocks with a friend. They decided to see who could hit the log about 20 feet out more....until they noticed it seemed to be getting closer...
One woman was swimming in a river in Little Big Econ State Forest at the tail end of June. Got both her arms ripped off by a very large gator and died. So of course it does happen occasionally. As an adult, I would consider paddleboarding or kayaking in areas where there are gators, but swimming is a really bad idea.
That happened because she went at the end of breeding season/beginning of nesting season, when alligators are much much more territorial. It was tragic, but also extremely reckless of them.
Children and poodles. I still don't understand why people walk their dogs close to the water and why they let their kids play close to the water. It's just ignorant.
Actually these signs popped up after that kid was killed and eaten and the lawyers got involved. They are nicknamed Disney signs. HOAs ordered them quickly.
These signs were around way before that Disney incident. we went to look at an apartment that had to sign right outside the door. We passed on that apartment and that was in 2009.
When I was about 10 I tripped over a log, and then as I was laying on the ground a little dazed it turned its head to look at me.
By far the scariest fucking thing that ever happened to me. And of course I immediately jumped up and started running and screaming. Fortunately, the gator was not that upset or hungry. Because at that point whether or not I continue to be alive was entirely its decision.
My grandparents were farmers in central FL and let me tell you, you haven’t lived until a 6ft gator is chasing a 5 year old you across strawberry fields while you’re helping pick! Thankfully I booked it fast enough to jump on to the tractor with my grandma.
My mom was once jogging on a trail and hopped over a log that had fallen onto that trail. As she jumped over it, the log got startled and ran into the water.
Good advice and worth repeating:
Never EVER take your stroll near water’s edge. There are several documented cases of pets returning home - still leashed - but missing their owner😬
Just don't swim. And keep your dog on a leash if you are walking a dog. Pay attention to your kids as well. Situational awareness is primary in Florida.
Even on a leash, don’t walk close to the water with that dog. So many have done the tug of war with the dog being tugged. However, that kayaker in Casselberry used that leash to reel his dog back in when a gator bumped him overboard. He reeled him in so fast, poor thing literally skipped across the water surface. Vid is still on YouTube. Of course, from beginning to end, lots of F-words.
My husband’s golf shot playing in Florida, he took a “free drop at the closest point he felt safe” per golf rules; 1 inch from the hole! This guy was hiding over a little rise blocking his water-bound shot, that’s a plus at least. Sigh.
I'm a pet sitter and used to walk two little dogs that had a lake near their apartment. They always tried to go down there and I always told them, This is as far as we go. I don't want to have to fight a gator for you today, little man.
And yet my pdoc in Florida is treating a woman who let her little white dog, on a leash mind you, a little too close to the water and was left with just the leash after a ‘gator took it for lunch, now she has ptsd. Just be aware, water=gators. I walk by quickly, yet extra quiet.
The trainer took the dog to a local park when we were fostering recently, and he took the dog down to w
ade at the edge of the water of the lake. I figured it was better to try to deescalate and get the dog out of that situation as quickly as possible versus triggering some dude's ego and ending up with the dog getting crunched while the humans were in an argument, but I almost had a fucking panic attack before I got that dog back up to the path. And then, once the dog was in a safe area, I was like, "Hey! See all the fucking signs around the lake that say don't get near the water because of the gators? Maybe don't do that."
We don't get a lot of gator activity in my immediate area, but they relocated an 8 ft gator out of that lake just last year.
General rule of thumb is that any body of water bigger than a bathtub can have a gator in it. They’re just an accepted part of life here. Listen to the sign, stay away from the water and don’t feed them.
Reminds me of the tried and true test: Stick your finger in the water and then taste it. If its wet, theres a gator in it. If its salty and wet, theres sharks and gators in it. This method has never failed me lol.
Ive always just assumed any water deeper than my knee has a Gatot in it. Mostly because of all the times ive come across knee deep water and then noticed a gator in it.
Gators are generally skittish - you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone. The Apopka wildlife drive in central Florida - it is not uncommon to have a ~7 foot gator basking at the edge of the parking lot. Ignore him, and he'll ignore you =)
Exceptions would be a mamma gator near her nest, or if you have a small dog, or some other small snack in the gator's eyes.
We were at Cape Lighthouse beach not far from Miami with our 4 yo grandson laying between us on towels. Our grandson had gotten under his towels to eat his chips without the sun in his eyes when a raccoon came onto our towels between us and under his towel to steal his chips. Of course our grandson got upset and scream “My Chips!” we look up to see this raccoon running away with the bag of chips, it was hilarious! I wished I could have seen its face when it bit into those salt & vinegar chip.
I swear I read a news story about an Everglades City resident that was attacked by an over 10 foot gator. He survived, went back and caught, and the neighbors called the cops because he was loudly SA'ing it in revenge. Old story, but crazy weird
I second this. Gators are (generally) chill. Most of the time if you can clearly see a gator and it's just minding its business, there's no danger as long as you keep a respectful distance and don't harass it.
Swimming in water where gators are known to be is risky, and there is always the danger that you might stumble upon a gator you DON'T first see and have time to avoid. This has happened to me and in most cases the gator will flee, but in some cases you unfortunately get what happened to those poor people who canoed over a large alligator in very shallow water last year.
Basically you want to avoid being in a situation where you are too close to a gator who is big enough that they choose fight over flight.
Emphatic 'yes' to the part about swimming with gators. On land, they aren't likely to attack unless you get too close, or try to mess with them.
In water or near the edge of water is where you have to be wary.
Humans aren't high on their list of prey, but in situations where they have the advantage, because they're larger or in their element, people really need to be careful.
Yes, for sure. When near the edge of water one definitely should be wary, especially with small children or pets. Gators don't usually try to attack full grown adults on land even from the water, but smaller children and dogs or other pets can be enticing.
Additionally, all bets are off if the gator has gotten used to being fed by humans. That's why it's so important not to feed them. A gator that associates humans with food will be much more aggressive and willing to approach humans on land as well as in the water.
You can also easily do this at the Shark Valley national park. They have a 12 or so mile bike trail and you can see dozens of alligators often just as up close and personal.
YES. Once saw an idiot trying to pet one. 1. That’s rude, leave it alone. 2. I do understand the urge to pet them, but would prefer to maintain my limbs.
Alligators move very fast on land and even faster attacking on the shore. Stay on the trail. Watch where you're stepping. You're more likely to step on a fire ant hill or walk into a banana spider web than get attacked by a gator.
Remember you're walking in nature, not a strip mall lol
A horse would easily outrun a gator over virtually any distance. Alligators have good short bursts of speed when they need it, but they get tired extremely quickly--by some estimates they can't really go longer than a few seconds at top speed, maybe up to 100ft or so. Their top speeds sprinting are a bit faster than an untrained, average person could sprint, but they're nowhere near the 40-50+ mph that a horse can sprint.
The main fact to bear in mind in this overall discussion is that alligators are ambush predators that hunt almost exclusively from the water. If they're targeting something on land, they like to approach quietly and unseen from the water, explode out of the water extremely quickly to grab their prey within a second or two, and then drag their prey back into the water to be drowned or death rolled. They also rely on allowing large prey to putrefy underwater to make it easier to tear apart, eat, and digest. This tactic means they're almost always targeting land animals that are within the immediate vicinity of water where they can be grabbed within that 1-2 second window. You're pretty much never going to see an alligator sprinting anywhere close to 100ft over land to grab something it perceives as prey. Also, if they have to drag your body hundreds of feet back to the water to consume you, it's not worth the energy. Realistically, the only way you're going to get attacked away from water is if you're provoking a gator that's moving between bodies of water.
I was reading the title thinking they were shocked at the sign itself, then was disappointed to see that it wasn't one of the ones that say not to molest the alligator.
We had one of those signs on our lake but last storm took it out and they replaced it with one of the new ones… so sad. No one cares about alligator molestation anymore.
What better sign for an alligator that requires the reader to inch closer to the water bank, then hold still for a period of time to read what's written in tiny font.
molest in this circumstance, means to tease, or mess with them in general. we've proven the average tourist puts their brain on a shelf if they want a good selfie.
I lived in Jacksonville around 1990. Two guys got caught stealing crabs from commercial crab traps and were convicted of molesting crab traps. Part of their sentence was to walk back and forth on one of the downtown bridges with signs saying “I molested crab traps” for 8 hours iirc.
Molest in English used to mean " to pester or harass aggressively or persistently" and over a long time it began to take on a negative connotation. I believe that eventually it started to be used as a euphemism for inappropriate sexual contact because it was considered more polite than outright saying someone was touching you sexually without permission. Eventually it just adopted the definition it holds today, particularly as sexual crimes against children became more normalized to decry publicly. At least that was what 5 minutes of skim reading had me come up with
My dad moved to Florida years ago and I ultimately went to college there, but I’ll never forget visiting him the first time and seeing a fairly decent sized gator sun bathing of half submerged shopping cart in retention behind a Publix. Might have been one of the most Florida things I’ve see since it involved a Publix.
yes. this is normal... not sure what you are trying to get out of this. The next 10 comments will tell you that every body of water in FL has alligators... there are million+
The sign is there so you don't go down by the water's edge. In Florida, you have to assume that there may be a gator in any body of water.
Generally speaking, gators are kinda lazy. They're ambush predators. They can lay on the bottom of the water and wait for something to come along and step in their strike zone. Gator's don't normally attack what's ahead of them. When something steps near their side, they whip their head around to the side and snatch their prey.
Where people get themselves into trouble is when they walk down by the water thinking it's pretty and stand within a foot or two of the waters edge, but there's a gator under the water waiting for just that moment. They don't naturally hunt humans, but if they get confused or are really hungry, a large gator will give it a try.
Just don't walk down by the water. Simple as that. Stand at least 10 ft from the water's edge. In June through September (nesting season), give extra distance. 25 feet is a lot safer. If you see a gator on land, don't approach it. It's extremely unlikely that it will approach you.
If you accidentally end up close to a gator, understand that they can move very quickly. They can briefly sprint at 15 mph, which is far faster than you can run, but the good news is that gators really like to conserve energy. I can't stress that enough. They'll avoid running if they can.
You might have heard you should run in a zig zag pattern. Don't bother. The gator won't run in a zig zag after you. They'll just run in a straight line, and your zig zagging will just slow you down. If a gator moves towards you, run in a straight line as quickly as you can in the opposite direction. Gators are not lions or cheetah. They're not going to chase you for every far, if at all.
It’s because many people feed them or actively harass them which creates a danger for everyone including the alligator. It causes them to lose fear and look to people as a food source, basically people are training them and they don’t fully understand the consequences of that. There was a small child taken on Disney property some years ago and I noticed the signs popped up after that at a lot of water sources.
Alligators don’t usually chase. If they hold their ground it’ll be a mother protecting her nest in which case she will charge you but she warns you first with a serious of hissing noises. Nests are easy to spot, it’s a mound of dirt and trampled vegetation. Females are usually around 8’ I’ve noticed but that’s not a rule, just a generality.
Basically don’t do anything stupid and you’ll be ok. Stupid = feeding, approaching, teasing with a fishing pole, trying to pet or touch, trying to intimidate or harass. A lot like bears which you may be more familiar with.
And sometimes they are in a parking lot in Celebration because that’s where certain companies spent years dumping the ones they removed from their property.
I know, but there are so few they barely matter (and they are basically the same species anyway). I was more making a comparison to the frequent stalking behavior of mountain lions out west (scary!) to the behavior of alligators (stay away and you're fine).
Just a normal part of life living in Florida. Swamp doggers are everywhere these days. If that sign is up there is a gator in that pond or an incident has already occurred there in the past usually. I’d be more worried about cottonmouth snakes that think you’re a threat. Those will chase you.
These signs exist (like "Caution! Hot! On a McDonald's cup) because enough people chose to try to touch, feed, or harass the wildlife and have gotten injured or worse.
Wildlife is wild and should be respected as such. And, fortunately, Alligators are exceedingly lazy, so generally as long as you ignore them and don't approach, they'll leave you alone.
You’re biggest thing is to be careful about walking near or along banks. Alligators like to hide, submerged under the water and ambush something as it goes to the bank. Always be mindful when walking near water. Don’t let your pets walk along banks.
A large alligator can be submerged right next to a bank and you could be standing closeby and have no idea. They disappear.
Depending where you are in Fl,, there may also be American Crocodiles. This is NOT a joke or sarcasm. And, there are at least a few released Nile cross in the Everglades that some a**holes released. A few Caimans have also been spotted.Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games...
Yeah it's mostly telling you not to walk over to the body of water (without being cautious at least). They're occasionally on the actual walking path too. Wouldn't you rather have a heads up?
Yes they run fast, probably faster than you but, only in short bursts. The land is not their true habitat. In the water though… they are the kings.
You’re in Florida… there are alligators, poisonous snakes, big cats, huge boar that have and will harm you. It is a dangerous place. That is why there are so many Florida Man stories. If you grew up here, you are a certified, hardened bad ass. You have to be.
In Florida you can pretty safely assume that every natural body of water (and most artificial ones, honestly) have at least one alligator in them so this is nothing unusual. It's mainly there as a reminder for tourists and transplants who haven't internalized that yet.
Yes. Walk by. Be aware. Every single body of water has a Gator in it.
After the last hurricane a few years ago I was riding my bike on the path. The creek has swelled up to the bike path. Gators were as sunning themselves on the path. Was a sign to take another route that day.
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u/humanshuman 11h ago
Yes.