Three women killed by alligators in Florida.

[BOBSMITH]

Strangely, considering that until this month there had only been 17 confirmed cases of fatal alligator attacks on humans in Florida history, there have been three just this month.

The really disturbing thing about one of them is that it was at Sweetwater Springs, which is along the Juniper Springs Run, which my wife and son and I canoed a few weeks ago. Everyone kept talking about the "sixteen-foot" alligator near the end of the run and we were hoping to see it. But it wasn't there when we canoed downriver. One ranger told us it was one of the biggest alligators he had ever seen. The place where it was supposed to sun was very close to Sweetwater Springs, where one of these women was attacked and killed.

All three fatal attacks were on women. I suppose many alligators are beginning to lose their fear of humans and sometimes associate us with food. Very sad.

[Chris Z]

Yes, one was just on news here. She's from here - Louisville, Ky. Didn't catch all the story but as I understand it, she was scuba diving. That sounded really weird to me -- diving in alligator area.

[BOBSMITH]

Yes, one was just on news here. She's from here - Louisville, Ky. Didn't catch all the story but as I understand it, she was scuba diving. That sounded really weird to me -- diving in alligator area.

When I was a kid living on the coast of Georgia, I used to dive for golf balls with the gators. I rarely gave it a second thought. The only time it concerned us was when we would go to the larger lakes on the golf course where the big gators lived. We did have one check us out on one occasion (a nine-footer), so we never hit that particular lake again.

Yes, it was a stupid thing to do. But in those days one never heard of alligator attacks. They were still very endangered back then ('70s).

Plus, I made a rather tidy sum re-selling the golf balls to the clubhouses.

[Sammy Joe]

I grew up in Orlando and as a kid I swam/ skied in and across all the lakes in my area and more. It’s funny I to use to swim the golf course ponds too at Dubstread CC and never gave gators or snakes a second though as it was all about the money. Over the years I had water moccasins climb up the motor on my boat only to find my paddle , chased while walking along the edge of St.Johns River, had one in my bait pin. My PoPs shot a 6’6” rattlesnake in backyard of our island house. This is just the price of living in paradise. One needs to just beware of the situation so you can avoid conflict with wildlife. There was a 12’ gator that washed out of the drainage canals near our island. He raised he’ll with everyone’s bait pens, crab traps and and stopped all fisherman from wade fishing until he was found dead on a island just south of our island ,gunshot to the head. We later found out it was a commercial fisherman who killed him when he attacked his boat. Am I scared of alligators not really just be aware of your surroundings.

[Meadowlark]

I am not familiar with those lakes in Florida, having only been there as a visitor (family). But I suspect that there's a reason alligator attacks seem to be increasing.


I'm certain everyone in Florida is aware of the explosion in numbers of invasive Burmese Pythons. Just this past week (late June, early July 2022) an 18 foot long, 215 pound female python was captured in the Everglades. It was filled with over 120 eggs. That's one enormous snake and the pythons are literally eating anything they can catch in the Glades. (I'm a field biologist by the way). In the early days they wiped out the smaller wildlife, for instance, birds of all species, raccoons, possums, foxes, young gators, feral dogs, cats, other snakes. As those populations decreased, the pythons graduated to larger prey: adult alligators, for instance, bear cubs, etc. Now they're decimating the white tailed deer (that the endangered Florida panther feeds on) and they're probably eating the panthers, too.


THe gators, in the meantime, have to move on to find something to eat. I've seen pictures of where a python caught and tried to eat an alligator. The python engulfed an alligator of a significant size. The gator wasn't quite dead, I guess, because it managed to claw it's way through the snake before it died, killing the python in the bargain.



I suspect that the gators are finding their way to areas the pythons haven't reached yet because there's no prey for the gators. The pythons have wiped out the animals and birds.


As the prey disappears, the pythons will be start spreading out from the Everglades.

I also suspect that one of these days someone is going to go missing, be it a child or a human and it will be a python that killed and ate them.

[cpaharley2008]

It is a shame that as mankind encroaches more with nature that nature must suffer.....

[jerrybob]

Python and alligator skin makes great cowboy boots.......they are both very comfortable......we need more cowboy boots to make the world safer.