I echo your post completely I have been paddling with them and studying them for thirty years and have never seen one charge yet.
If you get one cornered where it has no escape route, it will face you, open it’s mouth and hiss.
A few of the many gator tales I can relate:
I was pulling a canoe through a three foot wide mangrove tunnel where we ran out of water and only had about a inch of it. The thick Mangrove routes on each side were like a picket fence. I rounded a hairpin turn and came face to face with a big bull. Before I could even say “oh s–t” it exploded up and over the roots and off into the surrrounding mangrove forest where you or I could never even get to.
another time with a canoe we were just entering a tiny mangrove tunnel from a small open pond, and from a distance a saw a gator in the opening submerge.
I thought the water was deep, and figured it would be long gone by the time we got there, but it was not and unbenounced to me the gator was just lying on the bottom. As we went over it, I felt the canoe rub on something that I assumed was a log and pushed my paddle down to push us off of it. Once again the water exploded, the canoe lifted in the air and a gator took off out the front from under us. It ran down the tunnel, until it was able to get a side branch where it disappeared.
The stories about leaving the area if there are babys around are BS too.
We have more times then I can count sat amongst a bunch of little seven inch ones while the mother is either swimming around us or lying on the bank dutyfully watching us and them.
I have no doubt that you have encountered immature gators without problems from the mother, but please do not belive this is BS. Baby gators emerging from the egg make a croaking sound which gets the mother’s attention. She gathers them up gently in her mouth and takes them into the water. After that she stays near for several weeks, then they are on their own. So, you see it is possible to encounter immature gators without mom, but if she has not yet left, you will have to account with her about being there and it can be unpleasant.
I personally don’t wait to find out. One needs be especially careful if the young ones start a loud croaking alarm call. This will surely alert mom, if she is still around!
I've been charged and know people that have had a boat holed.
I live on a stretch where they are extremely abundant and in some cases well habituated to people. Most just sink out of sight when I pass but there are always a couple of big gators along my workout routes on the St. Johns that I have to take care to avoid during the warm months. The problem animals swim rapidly on the surface toward me. I've never stuck around long enough to find out if it is a bluff or not. It doesn't matter what side of the river I'm on either. I can be in the middle of the river or on the other side and they will approach. I did slow down enough once so that one could keep pace with me and he followed me for about 500m. These aren't females guarding nest either. So far these encounters have all been large males primarily during mating season.
I ought to add that feeding is a big problem in this area and that the river gets a huge amount of use so the gators here are well habituated to humans.
I didn’t say anything about going near the nest, and yes I have gotton close enough to the new borns in the water on numerous occassions to hear their croaking while the mother is watching with a weary eye.
I wonder how much paddling a long green object looks like another gator to a gator?
The gators wont tell me…I know they cant read…the long green object had Hemlock Canoe Works on it.
It never occurred to me that I would be harmed. I envisioned sitting in a mangrove with three quarters of a canoe and a surly neighbor with a mouthful of carbon fiber splinters.
Where do you get that? posted details on a previous question on alligators:
When I was 12, a bull alligator ate one of my peers, on the St. Johns.
'Gators are unpredictable; they DO eat people from time to time, and if they are incapable of eating somebody, the bacteria in their mouths is so toxic that fatal toxemia is possible only hours after being bitten.
Mangroves in the eastern part of the county haven't got many gators. The St. Johns were I live on the western side of the county is bottomland hardwood swamp with gator densities rivaling Lake Jesup. During droughts it's worse because they all come off the floodplain and hang out in the main channels. When the densities get really high the bulls get really edgy in season regardless of whether they've been fed. They like the river bends and 2-3 big guys will often spend the better part of the spring and summer battle over prime spots and they seem to regard sprint k1s as another rival based on the displays I've seen.
Regarding the feeders. I've gone ballistic a couple of times when I paddle around a corner back in a dead river and there are a couple of tourons on a rental houseboat or pontoon chucking scraps to gators. I've generally impolitely suggest that since they treat those gators like tame pets they should be willing to go swimming with them.
Gopher Creek in the ENP is connected to the gulf via two creeks, one of which runs from Rookery Bay. This is during the high water months of the year, so you are somewhat correct. During this time of year, the male gators become very territorial and a bit more bold than usual. I've paddled ENP for years and have no encounter except once, on Gopher Creek. One approached my tan Wenonah canoe from his resting site and actually got into the water toward my boat. Not sure if it was the boat or the fact I had a 400mm telephoto lens pointed squarely at him.
but it seems possible. But, unless fishermen are throwing remains to the gators (which is illegal on at least 2 counts), I doubt that their presence in number make the gators more aggressive. Although my friend had one go after a fish she had on the line. So maybe. I suspect that the time you and I were paddling in there, the gators (and birds and fish) were more concentrated for various reasons compared to other times of the year and this brought out their territorial behavior to the nth degree. I've been in there other times and have seen no more than a few gators. Go figure.