They get a lot more friendly when there is open season on them.
Their tolerance for humans declines with their size. I’ve never seen an 8 footer and smaller that won’t run from a paddler. 10’ and above, it looks like they are deciding whether to eat you or not.
Above that, and I’ve seen a couple of the Myyakka, that I got way from as quickly as I could.
@string said:
Proper restraining is a .357 but someone would film it and PETA heads would try to put the guy in jail.
I have nothing against gators and understand why they end up in yards but , like copperheads, I would remove them with extreme prejudice.
Actually FWC might not like that since it is their jurisdiction. Seems they are not in season. Shooting them is not an approved method of taking. (contact bang stick only) You’d have to show self defense.
Of course feeding them is also illegal. :s
@string said:
They get a lot more friendly when there is open season on them.
Their tolerance for humans declines with their size. I’ve never seen an 8 footer and smaller that won’t run from a paddler. 10’ and above, it looks like they are deciding whether to eat you or not.
Above that, and I’ve seen a couple of the Myyakka, that I got way from as quickly as I could.
X’s two !
We have paddled around them and studied them for many years.
We were about six feet from this loving mother who never even threatened us.
JackL
Sparky961 said:
You call that “restraining”? If I had to do that job I’d be putting in a claim to whatever labour health and safety board there was, stating that I needed better equipment to do my job safely.
http://img.gagdaily.com/uploads/posts/fact/2013/thumbs/000040e5_medium.jpg
"Nobody said anything about the ‘crotch-grab’! “Hey Cap’n, I think we’ll need to issue bigger suits!”
I guess I’m feeling a bit guilty with my somewhat “glib” replies, in light of the tragic loss of a life which was genesis for this post.
Many years back, perhaps ten or twelve, I remember it was about a year after we had floated Juniper Springs, and I read of a life lost to a gator attack at the popular takeout from the run down from the spring. In spite of the graphic warning signs, as I remembered there being, warning folks not to swim near the landing. I supposed, in a there-but-for-the-grace sort of way, that a large, aggressive alligator might easily have been so emboldened to take a shallow grab attempt at a smaller child, or even adult, splashing their exit from a semi-beached canoe or kayak. Then I thought, but the loud clamouring, the multiple writhing limbs extending from the plump, Old Town Discovery 174 silhouette, these must elicit a repulsion similar to attempting to grab a spastic, steroidally-raged and beached manatee. Maybe.
Ain’t no walk in the park
when you’re swimming with the shark,
and when you walk on shore there later
who’s to fate the instigator?
@string said:
Proper restraining is a .357 but someone would film it and PETA heads would try to put the guy in jail.
I have nothing against gators and understand why they end up in yards but , like copperheads, I would remove them with extreme prejudice.
Using a gun is always easier than using your head.
Ethics, People and Gator.
Former’s at a loss with middle into later.
Or is middle at a loss,
applying former to the later,
when the later was actually former,
and time hasn’t ethic as Revelator.
@canoeswithduckheads said:
Ethics, People and Gator.
Former’s at a loss with middle into later.
Or is middle at a loss,
applying former to the later,
when the later was actually former,
and time hasn’t ethic as Revelator.
You beat me to it. 
@qajaqman said:
@string said:
Proper restraining is a .357 but someone would film it and PETA heads would try to put the guy in jail.
I have nothing against gators and understand why they end up in yards but , like copperheads, I would remove them with extreme prejudice.Using a gun is always easier than using your head.
No, it isn’t.
@string said:
@qajaqman said:
@string said:
Proper restraining is a .357 but someone would film it and PETA heads would try to put the guy in jail.
I have nothing against gators and understand why they end up in yards but , like copperheads, I would remove them with extreme prejudice.Using a gun is always easier than using your head.
No, it isn’t.
But that depends on who uses it.