I know that but we have a few, not many, that like to parachute into existing threads with out reading them in entirety....before commenting

True! I've done that, only to find I duplicated someone else's comment almost to a tea. I was, appropriately, embarrassed.

Rare, but I have to

In my opinion any alligator over 4 feet long should be trapped or shot and sold to a restaurant. The problem is that some dumb newbees to Florida think that BIG gators are cute. And some even feed them. That kind of attitudes end up with some adult without a hand or some small dog or small human ending up in a gator's stomach.

The poor gator needs to be in a national forest or some wilderness area AWAY from dense people population. Both humans and gators have a right to exist - just not in overlapping territories.

That would mean that nobody could fish anywhere in Florida. Funny, I seem to see a lot of rods and reals for sale in Walmart and other stores.

Yes, the famous large ICE GATORS.

The problem could be easily solved by trapping any Gator 4 foot or greater in length and eating them at local restaurants.

After you ban fishing, you would have to ban all boats in the lakes and model boats and row boats. I think it would be easier to eliminate Gators over 4 feet.

Water moccasins are not as aggressive or as large as gators.

You can't control ALL the gators, but you could control those 4 feet or over. The under 4 foot long ones could maintain the balance of nature.

Alligators are among the most unpredictable animals there are! Try walking around a swamp AT NIGHT.

Let me guess: A huge government bureaucracy could be set up to identify, trap and remove those gators, all in the name of keeping people safe (from their own stupidity).

How to fish the ponds safely. Simple. stay 50 feet back from the water's edge and launch a drone with your fishing line and a bait and a bobbin rig. Have the drone drop the bait and hook and then use binoculars to watch the bobbin and wait for a fish.......good luck !!!!!!!!

Like government cheese, government gator bites!

I wonder would a zombie kill a gator or vice versa. Maybe we should stock the lakes with zombies?

Exactly. And let's make that 4 feet rather than 6 feet.

All animals. Especially predators are extremely unpredictable. 4 out of 5 might run, but the 5th one attacks from an unseen location. Even large animals in low or high grass can be practically invisible.

Which brings them closer to man.

Trappers get paid by the restaurants. Government NOT necessarily involved. It's the All-American profit motive!

Or, if he stayed in New Jersey this would also not have happened.

The poor gator is slave to many millions of years of instinctual behavior. They move according to instincts. Mate according to instincts. They get food, protect their young, in general live their lives according to millions of years of instinct. They only exist in their current situation. Humans choose where they live. Gators don't know any better. If you remove all the gators. It won't be long until new gators move in. Less expensive and safer is to teach gator awareness. We are the ones invading their territory. As you said we both have a right to exist. They can't learn new behaviors. We can!

You've got it backwards. Gators aren't being brought closer to humans. Developers are bringing humans closer to to gators. The onus is on humans to learn the pros and cons of where they move to.

Just to avoid any confusion... You're suggesting 4' as the limit?

Terrifying creatures...

https://i.makeagif.com/media/3-17-2017/67uk9Y.gif

I'm still not signing up to hold the tape measure.

Yep, Cody Gribble was terrified.

Meanwhile, for JJ, it's not 1/5 of the time the gator acts in an unpredictable manor, it's 1/50,000. They are pretty predictable---if you have food, they might try to grab it from you, including any of your parts that get in the way. If you approach their young, they will defend them. If you get between a male and female during mating season, watch out (no different for humans :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:). Otherwise , they will run away from you as fast as they can.

I am a moderate sized animal. It doesn't seem to matter how tall the grass is, the police always find me. 😏😏😏

///

On that note.....the gators mating season in TV commences in April and hatching sometime in August. Save the dates

💯 !!!

:boom:

What do you figure? 6 feet, more or less?

Just for clarification.....TV at last count has 450 lakes and ponds? Correct me. You want the property, 35 square miles eradicated because of a single issue? Btw..should the developer assume the costs associated with said removal or don’t you think (playing along with this pie in the sky scenario) that they would throw another line item into your ‘fees’ to accomplish that fete....plus the costs for deploying TV border patrols to prevent reentry?!

Typo on 450......stand to be corrected on totals...lakes and ponds

The retention ponds should be cleared. Leave the swamps alone. The CDDs will have to hire or allow hunters to harvest the gators from the retention ponds.

The harvest will have to be repeated from time to time. It will be an ongoing expense.

That's it. I never suggested any nonsense about preventing reentry or eradicating the horrific reptiles, just reduce the population to ensure resident safety.

The reptile involved in the disastrous hand attack was a little over 9 feet. It was also NOT in The Villages. My opinion is that it should have been turned into shoes a long time ago.

This is not a single issue. Check the history. We have had this argument for a while. There are those who say: Leave them alone, they were here first, & those who say: This is a retirement community made up of older folks who are no longer as spry, fast, observant, etc. as they once were. Make it as safe as reasonable.

It will not be solved by a discussion forum. Just decide which side you are on.

I’m not a wildlife expert nor biologist. Not sure size matters in this particular thread! I would much rather convene a meeting of qualified minds to determine best course action as it is not as simple as you suggest. There are eco issues to consider as well. As far as choosing sides, I will always choose common sense over hysteria

For some perspective for those who want gators eradicated. On average there are between 7 to 10 gator attacks each year nation wide. There are 4.5 million dog attacks/bites, 100,000 plus needing medical care, and over 33 fatalities as a result of dog attacks in the US annually.
Maybe you are singling out the wrong savage beast for persecution and annihilation.

😕

Then by your reasoning we better kill every dog too. Across the United States, there are more than 89 million dogs and 4.5 million dog bites that occur each year, and at least half the dog bites are on children.

Far too many posters offering solutions to a problem that basically, does not, has not, and will not exist in TV, if the minority just learn to live with their surroundings, and learn to use a bit of the old gray matter!

If it was open for trappers to take them, there would be less. Perhaps only a few, Repeat as needed and overall it's safer.

Eating things like chicken, beef, pork, bacon, turkey, duck, ...

There are millions already there. There is no threat to the population by removing ones around residents homes.
In the entire area being under construction, there were no alligators there. No retention ponds either. Now that many have been built, alligators are there. Alligators were not first.

The topic is alligators. There are plenty of other ways people are killed. Drunk drivers, criminal gangs, etc. Please go solve those other issues in a thread about them, not in a thread about alligators.

There is no cost to us for this to happen. The alligator itself has value on the open market. Trappers would love to be allowed to come here at no cost to us.