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How to increase your odds in gator encounter

Spring drives toothy saurians in search of mates and food. A Science Center show will help you avoid being the latter.

By JON WILSON
Published March 27, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Matt Allen packed up his life seven years ago, left his St. Louis zoo job and headed for the reptile world down South.

"I wanted to be closer to alligators," said the St. Petersburg Science Center instructor, who worked with insects in St. Louis.

Known as the Science Center's "gator guy," Allen will put on a timely class Saturday about living safely around the toothy saurians that co-exist with Floridians - even in urban areas such as St. Petersburg.

It's close to the time of year when gators emerge from winter doldrums, look for food and contemplate mating. They are likely to be on the move; it's time for humans to be wary, especially when treading around the city's many lakes, ponds and drainage ditches.

"I call it gator safety," Allen said of his show. "It's about two things. Keeping humans safe from alligators and alligators safe from humans."

Allen's co-star Saturday is Sawgrass, a 31/2-foot female alligator on loan from Gatorland near Kissimmee. The two are on at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Admission is $5. The Science Center is at 7701 22nd Ave. N.

State scientists believe more than 1-million alligators live in Florida, which is about 1 for every 16 residents. No one knows how many thrive in St. Petersburg and environs.

But a wildlife biologist will conduct a count later this year in Lake Maggiore. The dates haven't been set, said Clarence Scott, parks director.

The count is about determining the balance in nature. In other words, are there too many gators in Lake Maggiore or just enough of the impressive beasts to maintain a healthy urban ecological setting? It has been years since the lake's last alligator census, officials say.

But there's no question the reptiles reside there, though probably not in the high numbers a trapper suggested last year.

Joe Burgasser, a widely known St. Petersburg runner, typically puts in scores of weekly training miles, often around the lake and in adjacent Boyd Hill Nature Park. He recalls two gator experiences.

Not wearing his glasses one day, Burgasser came up on what he estimated was an 8-foot gator on the lake's southeastern lip, just off one of Boyd Hill's main foot trails.

"It was big enough to drag me under," Burgasser said. What he did was backpedal quickly and quietly. The alligator didn't react, he said.

On another occasion, Burgasser and a running pal spied another 8-foot specimen on a trail near the park's Paul Eppling metal sculpture. Burgasser said his pal, from Maine and perhaps not familiar with the nuances of Florida wildlife, moved as if to take hold of the gator.

Burgasser quickly pulled him back.

His moves were correct in both cases.

Alligator experts say humans surprised by the animals should get away as quickly as possible - and in a straight and rapid line, not the zigzag pattern sometimes suggested.

Allen says many rules guide human behavior around alligators, but that he emphasizes just a few: Don't try to touch; stay a safe distance away, such as a minimum of 25 feet; and, most importantly, don't feed them.

Alligators that attack people probably do so because someone has fed them - not necessarily the person attacked - and the gator has lost its fear of humans.

To see more information about alligators and safety around them, go to wildflorida.org/gators.

The site tells you, among other things, that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission gets more than 15,000 alligator-related complaints every year.

More than 200 unprovoked alligator attacks on humans have taken place since 1948, according to state statistics, and they resulted in more than a dozen fatalities.

Earlier this month, authorities blamed an alligator for killing a 56-year-old Lakeland man found floating in a pond. In the gator's stomach was the victim's forearm, trappers said.

[Last modified March 27, 2005, 00:34:19]