A 4-footer lounges near a home until two dachshunds sound the alarm. It gets a one-way ticket out of suburbia, and a chance to grow up.
By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published June 22, 2004
[Times photos: Ted McLaren]
Sheriff's Deputy Tim Greene and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Doug Loyed restrain a small gator that had wandered into a Floral City neighborhood Saturday. Loyed released the alligator elsewhere. Had it been longer or especially aggressive, it might not have been spared.
[Times photo: Ted McLaren]
Doug Loyed dwarfs the gator, but it did hiss when captured, said the woman who called, Katie Raml. During the wet months, gators tend to wander.
FLORAL CITY - The barking of her two dachshunds were getting irksome, so Katie Raml figured something must be going on outside.
"They were going nuts," Raml said of Elmo and Oscar, who were inside the house with her Saturday around noon.
She glanced out her kitchen window toward the driveway and spotted the source of the commotion: an alligator, about 4 feet long, under her pickup truck. Her husband, Russell, was away officiating a youth basketball game, so Raml called 911.
"I told them, "I've got an alligator in my driveway,' " she said.
And so it goes in summer. Alligators have been on the move in recent weeks. Several factors are at work.
"It's the tail end of the mating season," said Karen Parker, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which handles complaints about nuisance alligators. She said the mating season tapers off by late June.
Rain also brings out wanderlust.
In Raml's case, a sheriff's deputy showed up after a few minutes, parked his car nearby and kept an eye on the gator.
After about an hour, Doug Loyed, an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, arrived. Using a snare on a pole, he quickly captured the alligator.
"That's when it got angry," Raml, 22, said of the gator. "It started hissing."
The Ramls live in Pine Lake, which has a small pond. Nearby is Lake Bradley, much larger.
Heavy rains essentially create new marshes or expand the boundaries of lakes and ponds. This is an open invitation for a gator to explore new surroundings. They will return to the larger bodies of water in the fall, when the dry season comes.
Only in Florida do people live with the juxtaposition of a prehistoric reptile lurking beneath a shiny pickup truck in a middle-class suburb, perhaps eyeing the owner's dog as a quick meal.
"The Fish and Wildlife officer said the gator could probably hear and smell the dogs, which is why it was staying around," Raml said.
The gator will be relocated, Parker said.
Alligators smaller than 4 feet can usually be successfully moved elsewhere, she said. If the gator is longer than 4 feet or is very aggressive, it usually means the end for the animal.
With larger gators, one of 37 licensed trappers the wildlife commission contracts with can be called to catch and kill it. The trapper, who is not paid by the state, is allowed to sell the hide and meat.
That's why the larger gators usually meet their demise.
"Plus, gators are very territorial, and a large alligator will simply not be allowed to live in another environment by the gators already there," Parker said.
The wildlife commission region that includes Citrus County and stretches north to Duval County receives up to 25 to 30 calls a day about alligators. By mid May, about 500 calls had been logged in about nuisance alligators this year, Parker said.
If an alligator wanders onto your property, the best thing to do is leave it alone and call the wildlife commission, Parker said.
An Inverness man was bitten by an 11-foot alligator May 30 after he tried to tie the gator up while waiting on a trapper to arrive. The gator was on a road, and was killed by the trapper. The bite victim, Scott Arnhold, is recovering at home from the bite to his knee.
- Information from Times files was used in this report. Jorge Sanchez can be reached at 860-7313 Send e-mail to sanchez@sptimes.com
TIPS ON AVOIDING PROBLEMS WITH GATORS
Do not feed or entice alligators. It is illegal and can make them lose their fear of humans.
Do not feed other wildlife near the water. Alligators do not know you are not intentionally feeding them.
Do not swim, walk dogs or let young children play at night or dusk along the shore of bodies of water known to contain alligators. Any body of fresh water can contain alligators.
Do not try to remove an alligator from its natural habitat or try to keep one as a pet. Both are against the law.
- Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission
- To file a complaint about nuisance alligators, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission toll-free at 1-888-404-3922.
