No, I’m not going to say please.
Don’t feed the alligators.
It’s illegal to feed alligators in Florida.
Gators and hurricanes are part of living in Florida. We may joke about it, but when it comes down to it, Florida takes real gators seriously. Oh sure, the gator is our official reptile and the UF Gators are a serious group of sports teams and who doesn’t know about Gatorade?
The cutsey press gators get in Florida can give our visitors the wrong idea. Alligators are natural, deadly predators. They are not smart animals as a raccoon can outsmart a female and raid her nest for eggs, but sometimes the wild animal raiding an alligator nest dies in the attempt. Alligators are territorial and cunning. Their behavior is instinctual, not learned. We should not forget that Florida is a subtropical jungle with both beauty and deadliness. Please enjoy the beauty, but respect the deadly.
Thirty years ago, I didn’t know squat about alligators. I went canoeing down a Florida river a couple months after moving here and was surprised I had to sit through a 2 hour class before departure. It was eye opening. I tell anyone who thinks of visiting Florida to check out the facts about alligators, mosquitoes, sharks, jellyfish and pythons. This is one area where the State of Florida does a pretty good job of informing the public of how to be safe. For gators, use the Rule of Thumb”— 1. Place your thumb between you and the alligator, 2. Back up until your thumb completely obscures the alligator — you are now at a “safe” distance. I usually look around for something easy to climb, too. Going up 3-4 feet wall works — as long as you find a wall you can climb but the gator can’t.
Florida does manage the gator population and hunters are allowed to pursue these beasts, but we need alligators ecologically. The alligators in the everglades, our river of grass create gator holes as part of their feeding process and constantly change the topography of the glades. These changes keep the water moving and the saw grasses cleansing the water — our drinking water. Healthy Florida wetlands forestall saline intrusion. Florida alligators are essential to wet land health. We need the wet lands for our drinking water. We’re stuck with the gators. We need them. (We don’t, however, need the exotic Burmese Python, but that’s another diary.) We definitely don’t need people thinking alligators can be made into a pet.
I’ve canoed, camped and water skied in Central Florida. It’s safe enough when you practice safety (two boats for water sking, btw. One to pull and one to circle a downed skier.) You’re safe if you take care, get educated and heed the warnings. As a former WDW annual pass holder, I’ve always looked at Lake Buena Vista as a natural gator habitat and marveled that I rarely saw any in the lakes surrounding WDW. I did hear them (a guttural, clicky sound), but didn’t see them.
When you visit “Gatorland” you might get the idea that alligators are easily handled, outsmarted and managed. Gators usually move very slowly, but these creatures can move very quickly for short periods of time when motivated for food or to win a fight.
In truth, Florida’s tourism business does conflict with a common sense approach to alligators. They are not cute, but we don’t want tourists to stay away for a menace that shouldn’t be a problem if you exercise good sense. The Disney World corporate culture was part of the problem in the death of Lane Graves.
Disney’s water management personnel have some of the best paid jobs at Disney. These employees don’t usually interact with the guests, they interact with Florida State officials. WDW has a good reputation with Florida’s Wildlife Division. They adhere to Florida law and try to manage wildlife in a tourist attraction. Their job is to manage the wildlife without the guests noticing them doing their job. It is worth noting that Disney’s alligator policy has worked very well for two incidents over 40 years (BTW, Yellowstone Park has a worse record with bears). Part of the job is looking for nuisance alligators and getting rid of them. A hand fed alligator has no fear of humans. Relocated alligators attempt to go back to their territory creating havoc. Alligators over 4 feet long can be a menace to the guests. Nuisance alligators are caught and killed. This part of WDW functions effectively. There are about 1.3 million alligators living in Florida. Only finding seven alligators in the Seven Seas Lagoon where I’d expect to find a couple hundred alligators is very effective.
During training Walt Disney World employees are told to make sure all guests have a positive experience — a “Magical” experience. Employees are trained to avoid saying the word “no” to a guest under all circumstances. Employees are to give the guest information about what can be done without saying the words: can’t, no, forbidden or mandatory. Negativity is to be avoided. There’s no crying at Disney. If you seeing a crying unhappy guest, do something to “make it right”. This policy doesn’t work in all circumstances, but it certainly works when a guest gets a free replacement when they drop their ice cream cone. It doesn’t work well when you are trying to tell a guest to not feed the gators or when calming a guest when they freak out about the alligators.
There is a trail of employees filing complaints anonymously about alligators at WDW, their frustration with guests feeding the alligators. The reason there are no alligator warning signs is likely (I don’t have confirmation on this, but managers I know who work there all surmise that) alligator warning signs would be too negative a message for the guests. That policy is changing now. (About time IMO.)
Why weren’t there more barriers to prevent an alligator from accessing a guest? Good point. Hind sight is our best teacher, but oh, what a tragedy this is. My heart cries for these parents. My heart grieves for the loss of this baby. Had they only known that 9:30 pm was a very dangerous time to be near open water. We live in a world where we want to blame somebody when a tragedy happens. We want to make someone accountable, make someone pay. More warning signs, better barriers more guest education is in order, but please, don’t blame the parents. Being from Nebraska, I bet they didn’t know any better.
If you want to make sure this doesn’t happen again, may I suggest you lobby the Florida Legislature to mandate alligator warning signage be placed in public places adjacent to alligator habitats and require the FL turnpike and Interstate rest areas post alligator safety rules.
First Up.
Don’t Feed the Gators!