There’s a story out there on various sites about a Florida teen who was bitten by an alligator. Frightening stuff, for sure! As a Florida native, the fear and respect for those fascinating creatures is ingrained from a very early age. There’s a funny Instagram video where a guy is told how to accurately detect if a body of fresh water in Florida has an alligator in it. The one sure way to find out is to feel the water first. If it’s wet, there’s an alligator present. The video was good for a laugh but also… yikes.
I’m going to censor myself by not talking a lot about the teenage boy’s unwise decision to swim in a murky creek. A murky creek… in Florida… can’t see what’s in the water… and you’re swimming… 🙄
Everyone’s grateful he was able to get away but it’s too bad an alligator has since died (although, they’re not sure if the one that was killed was the same that bit the boy). Wildlife suffers because of one immature boy’s dumb choices. Nice. As one comment I read said, humans are apex predators but we are not the top of the food chain.
The story is scary, and we should all have a healthy fear of alligators. I have a sprint triathlon coming up where the swim takes place in a Florida spring. You can bet your foggy goggles I’m going to triple check what kind of set up they have around the water to make sure it’s 100% as safe as possible for us as swimmers.
Alligators are big, strong, and should be revered as we swim or recreate as visitors in their domain. I’ve had the chance to see some small gators and big ones as I camped around the southeast so next up is a gallery of favorite photos I’ve taken of the dinosaur-like beasts. PS. These and more are all available for purchase on my SmugMug page. Thanks for taking a look!
-Out of the Wilderness
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Out of the Wilderness 