[ilovetv]

[duffysmom]

Originally Posted by BobnBev

And when the gator shows up, I stop feeding the turtles, that's a no brainer

Originally Posted by morancheryl

Unfortunately, many times the alligators show up when feeding turtles. Then they ecome to familiar with people. I paddle Dragon Boats on LSL and we had a large gator stalking us. When we went to the lighthouse, it went to the light house. When we went to the Waterfont, it went to the Waterfront. This went on for 2 hours. The gator approached our boat too, probably looking for food.

Unfortunately, paddling requires our hands to be in the water. So feeding the turtles, while entertaining, influences gator behavior. My husband walks the dock nearly daily and sees gators there often so it is hard to separate gators from turtles.

Morancheryl, that is frightening and some people will never get it. Throwing food into the lake is teaching the gator that people represent food. An aggressive gator who has lost his fear of people is extremely dangerous.