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