One of the things I wanted to do while in Florida was take an airboat tour (see photo above) in the Everglades, like you see in the pan shot at the beginning of the TV show CSI Miami…and hopefully see alligators. I had seen impressive crocodiles (which I was told could reach lengths of 23 feet and weight up to 1500 pounds—the most powerful amphibians on our planet) in and around the Mara River when I was in Kenya, Africa, and now I wanted to see the other large reptile belonging to the crocodilian family—alligators.

I wondered how the gators differed from the crocs. (Besides their size…I knew the much smaller gators could grow up to 14 feet in length and weigh as much as 1,000 pounds).

I’ve seen YouTube videos of brownish crocs pulling buffalo into African watering holes…or crocs attacking zebras…but I’ve never seen or heard of alligators doing something as bold as that…so I assumed crocs were ferocious whereas the smaller, blacker gators were more docile.

(By the way, did you know crocodilians have been around for 200 million years—and have changed very little since then? And they survived while dinosaurs vanished! And, crocs and gators coexist in Florida—the only known place in the world that they do!)

Anyway, their snouts are different…and you can see ALL the teeth along the jaw line of a croc when its mouth is closed (including a huge tooth on each side of the lower jaw—yikes)…but only see the teeth of the upper jaw on a closed-mouthed alligator.

But what’s really interesting…and perhaps refutes the “more docile” theory, is the evidence documented in Florida since 1948 showing more than 275 unprovoked alligator attacks on humans, with at least 17 resulting in deaths.

In talking to local Floridians I discovered that alligators can sometimes be found in backyard ponds, canals, ditches and streams, garages, pools and in golf course ponds! In fact, recent Tropical Storm Fay flushed several gators (and snakes, and other wildlife) into residential areas.

And get a load of this—amazingly, there are 30,000 Burmese pythons in the Everglades…in fact, several types of deadly snakes…boa constrictors and yellow anacondas…and they’ve battled the gators!

In October 2005 a 13-foot python (a constrictor that suffocates its prey) ate a 6-foot alligator! But both died because the python split open after devouring the gator whole (above picture).

And by the way, even before Fay, there’s evidence the deadly snakes were moving into suburban Miami (and north to other areas)—and they are known to grow up to 30 feet in length—and they are known to eat humans! Scary!

When I got back from vacation one of the first things my father said was, “I hope you kept the kids in the car when you were in the Everglades…there’s alligators, and deadly snakes there you know!”

I know Dad…but we didn’t see any snakes. However, maybe next time we’ll see them in a city! But I did see gators…

In fact, I held a three-and-a-half foot one…and so did my children. And the gator was very friendly!

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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