Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Herps in the News: Florida Alligator

Herps in the News

Blog Post 5


               This news story takes place in Miami, Florida. The Miami Fire Rescue crew were on their way driving back to the Fire Station, when they noticed something that resembled an unconscious person. Naturally when they went to investigate, they found an 11-foot alligator in instead. The crew contained the animal until a trapper was able to arrive on the scene. It was reported that containing the alligator was easy due to its sluggish movements throughout the neighborhood. When the trapper arrived, because of the dark wet conditions, they thought because to put the animal down due to safety concerns.

               When hearing this story, it was very interesting that an alligator was just moving through a neighborhood so late into the night. In reading more on their behaviors, they are typically active from dusk to dawn with variation. Apparently other alligator occurrences were happening the same time this news came about. The likely reason for such alligator activity is because this is their breeding season. Male alligators are commonly found roaming from ponds to ponds looking for a mate from the months of April to June. Unfortunately, the gator in this story was euthanized because of safety concerns. It makes sense why the trapper was concerned on the conditions of the night, because of the added difficulty to wrestle the animal.

               What gets me is that the alligator was to be put down rather than tranquilized like most situations. I truly doubt that this was a feed-gator situation, which gives a better reason to put them down. This simply was normal movements of an alligator lost on its way in my opinion. The fact that this was an alligator, is what I think was the big scare for the people that found it. In the video accompanying the story, the head line clearly showed the fear they had through the title “scaly scare”. As well in the video, after being provoked, the alligator showcased the power it had in its rolling. At the end of the story, they expressed the gratitude of the neighborhood to its first-responders for keeping them safe. It makes sense that what we don’t know can be scary, but the lack of education on such animals could make things worse or scarier in the future. This is a threatened species as it is, and we just lost another one.

-        Javier Polo Jr.

1 comment:

Allison Welch said...

Great points. In the video, it looks like they're provoking it - which as you point out, only contributes to unnecessary fear.