Alligators in the Parks?? About This Page:

[exile]

Dw and DD were sitting on the balcony at BCV one morning and heard some splashing. They looked down at the canal and there was Mr. Gator with a freshly caught snake in his mouth. DD went down and took some up close pictures from the safety of the bridge.

[Grumpygal]

I saw the one hanging out around the wooden walkway between Frontierland and Liberty Square. He was just kind of floating there. Although a lot of people were standing there looking at him. I would think it wouldn't be a problem unless people start trying to feed it. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Taleena]

While I've never seen a gator in WDW (too busy looking at all the Disney stuff, I guess [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ), I can answer what the difference is between gators and crocs...

1) They're from different families.

2) You can't see an alligator's teeth when its mouth is closed; its lower teeth fit snugly into pits in the upper jaw. In contrast, a crocodile's lower teeth are always visible.

3) Alligators have a broad snout, while crocodiles have a thinner snout.

4) Alligators tend to be grayish black in color, whereas crocodiles have a light tan appearance.

5) Alligators can only be found in the southeastern United States and in some parts of China. Crocodiles can be found all over the world.

There's a really good site about the biological differences between the two at the Crocodilian Biology Database (yes, I'm an animal freak [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] ). Also keep in mind, both crocs and gators can move quite quickly (short burst running speed of 35 mph), so while a gator might not be prone to attacking (they're usually, but not always, more docile than crocs), if you annoy one into chasing you, it can easily catch you. I'll never forget the time we were vacationing at Sanibel Island, FL (after a few days at WDW) and saw two 20-something girls with cameras in the middle of the road, pitching pebbles [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] at a dozing gator in a nearby drainage ditch. When we told them how fast the gator could run, the girls turned stark white and raced for their car. It never ceases to amaze me how dumb/crazy/unthinking some people can be.

[homeschoolmom]

Yup. We saw a man in Custer State Park, SD, try to get between a buffalo calf and its mother!! How stupid can a person be???? Well a bull took more offense to this man than the mother did and came to take a stance between the man and the mother and calf. The man was put out about that until someone shouted at him from another car that the bull was giving him fair warning to back off. He finally did. I made the comment to my husband that anyone crazy enough to try to come between mother and baby in the wild probably deserved whatever nature chose to dish out!!

[LuckyPup]

My Mom and Dad went golfing at Disney once, and my Dad accidentally shot into the rough. Now, they had been warned by the CMs that if a ball goes into the rough, just leave it there. However, it was only across a little bitty stream, and my Dad figured he'd hop across and get the ball. Until he saw the alligator laying in the stream, just to the side of the ball! He figured he'd take the stroke and loose the ball after that! [img]graemlins/ukid.gif[/img]

Also--if an alligator really is bugging you, you can put it to sleep by flipping it on its back, and rubbing its tummy. Of course, I doubt anyone wants to get that close to the alligator, but it can be done!
[img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Tom Sawyer's Island is home to a lot of critters--one of my friends worked at Aunt Polly's and saw his fair share of garden snakes, insects (include the FL standard--palmetto bugs, AKA cockroaches [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] ), and alligators. I myself saw a feral cat right by Thunder Mt. It was late at night, and a skinny calico kitty walked right on out like she owned the place! Very strange!

[Love 2 Laugh]

Originally posted by Janet 45:
We saw a couple of them when we stayed at Shades of Green a couple of years ago. They were sunning themselves just a few feet off the walking path that leads to the Poly.

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">We've seen them there, too. Apparently they really like the ponds right along there and hang out there all the time. I understand that they've even stayed there during the construction that's going on at SoG right now. If you really want to see one, this might be the place to go.

[JenS]

I'm totally jealous! We have not seen a gator at WDW yet, but DH would love to!! The closest we've come is a snake slithered across the path in front of us near the Grand Floridian Wedding Chapel. It was a little one though [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] .

[karen4322]

From previous post: (I cant figure out how to quote) "Many people would feed him and the turtles."

Feeding the alligators?!?!?! Good grief!! No offense intended, but these people must not be from down here. You NEVER feed wild alligators. Once they lose their fear of people and especially when they start to see people as their food source they can become very aggressive!! We get articles in our paper quite often about aggressive alligators and while I wont go into details (can put a lot of unnecessary fear in you)
it can be very bad. Please dont participate in this practice!

KarenW (in Florida)

[Jeffery]

When I was training as a cast member for the grand opening of DAK, they took us all to the MK to dress as MK Cast Members and wander the park for the day. (There was alot of this as the DAK wasnt finished when we were all hired.) We were fortunate enough to watch the animal control boys come up in a boat by Toms Sawyers Island and remove a very large gator from near the raft launch area. It was probably 6 foot. We asked some of the Tom Sawyer CMs and they told us a couple of large gators had took up residence there several times that spring. Apparently when gators are on property and near enough to guest areas where they might come in contact they net them and take them way out into the woods and release them again. Problem is there are little water ducts dug all over the place out there and the gators just swim up them until they hit a lake or something. If memory serves, Disney has tried putting mesh and other things in the little water canals to make it harder for the gators, but they still get through. Having driven out behing the MK I can well imagine lots of Gators running around out in those trees. It is very beautiful though. Even with the fields and the cows.

- Jeffery

[goofy4goofy]

Jeffery: I worked Dak grand opening too..where did you work? I was at Tamu Tamu most of the time.

As far as seeing alligators...well, this is one of my favorite memories. We (my family) were standing at Captain Jack's at the Disney Marketplace on our first ever trip to Disney many many years ago. While looking out over the water, my Mom says, "Is that what I think it is?" Sure enough, an alligator was swimming by near the dock. I'm thinking he must be getting food from the restaurant. My Mom got so scared she hightailed it out of there. I can still remember laughing hysterically.

Kelly [img]graemlins/usa.gif[/img]

[Jeffery]

I worked at Conservation Station as a college student for the grand opening.

- Jeffery