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With temperatures rising, some 100,000 of
the reptiles and their offspring are coming up from the bottom
of rivers to sun on marsh banks across the Lowcountry. Their
numbers have doubled since they were listed as a federal
Endangered Species in the 1970s. At the same time, the human
population along the coast has more than doubled.
As a result, more people are bumping into
more alligators. That includes relative newcomers whose closest
previous experience with the dinosaur-like reptile has been
watching crocodiles kill water buffalo on television. Now they
find the half-submerged eyes of an American alligator staring
from their subdivision's water retention pond.
DNR gets 500 to 700 gator complaint calls
per year, but only about one in five of the reptiles pose a
threat to residents or their pets. "Of the 23 species of
crocodilians, it's the pussycat," said Walt Rhodes, DNR
alligator project supervisor.
Each year, wildlife officers remind people:
-- It's illegal to feed an alligator.
-- It's illegal to harass an alligator.
-- Only DNR-approved trappers are permitted
to catch alligators.
-- There never has been a fatal alligator
attack on a human in South Carolina.
Although the density of alligators in South
Carolina coastal wetlands rivals the density found in Florida or
Louisiana, there have been only eight attacks on humans in this
state in 28 years of reporting. Nearly all were provoked by
people trying to feed or catch one of the reptiles. In one case,
a child stepped on an alligator while crossing a canal.
Most calls about alligators involve juvenile
gators 3 to 5 feet long that were pushed from their habitat by
larger alligators and are searching for territory. Rhodes
compared them to teenagers -- naturally curious and too
inexperienced to drop immediately to the bottom when people get
near.
"To the untrained eye, a 3- to 5-foot gator
just looks like a gator. But they have a much different mindset
than the larger (gators)," Rhodes said.
It takes an alligator bigger than 7 feet
long to catch a dog of any size. Alligators smaller than that
feed on turtles, snakes, frogs and the like. A healthy fish can
out-swim them.
Bigger gators shy more readily. That's how
they lived to be so big. Experts say that it's a myth that
alligators will chase people across the lawn. Neither Rhodes nor
contract trapper Johnny Williamson, who has trapped more than
2,000 alligators in 17 years, has had a gator that wasn't
cornered move aggressively toward him.
Most alligators trapped as nuisances are
6 feet or longer. They are killed and sold for
meat or hides to cover a portion of the removal cost and because
they won't stay put if moved.
Alligators have an uncanny homing instinct.
A 6-foot alligator was trapped in a pond near Beaufort and
released on Bears Island in Bull's Bay more than 30 miles and
five river basins away. It was caught again in its home pond 14
years later -- as a 10-footer.
DNR and its contract trappers have removed
gators from under cars and from rose bushes, tool boxes,
swimming pools, a hospital parking lot and a Goose Creek car
dealer's showroom.
The area around Goose Creek Reservoir is a
hotbed for alligators because its large expanse of wetlands is a
self-sustaining habitat, and its weeds are a habitat for food
sources.
Still, most alligator complaints involve
animals that are too small to be a threat. Most are left alone
because they are in or alongside their natural habitat.
Their numbers have recovered enough that
they no longer are an endangered species, but they still are
protected.
DNR officials warned residents not to swim
or allow children or pets to swim in water where large
alligators live, especially at dawn, dusk or after dark, when
the creatures are active. Ask any Goose Creek Reservoir
nighttime boater what it feels like to be in the water
surrounded by numerous sets of glowing eyes.
"Use common sense," Cain said. "Leave it
alone. It's in its own habitat. It has its own environment."
Anyone with questions or concerns about
alligators can call the DNR radio room at 1-800-922-5431. |
