Behemoth, that’s the first word that came to mind when I saw this guy this morning….he was huge…maybe ten feet long but WIDE! He looked like he’d just swallowed a hog, his belly looked so full (also, I thought I detected a smile on his face). Usually you’ll see gators that are ‘fat’ like this in zoos, in the wild they don’t ever seem to get this wide…at least the ones I’ve seen. Which makes me think he’d just had himself a nice, hearty breakfast!
There’s big gators all over the place in Florida, but with so much open space and water, you don’t always see the big ones. But, as we make our way into the dry season, they all start to congregate in the ponds that do hold water as everything else dries up. There’s one section in Dinner Island Wildlife Management Area I call the ‘gator pit’. This is an area of water that stays full year-round. So when everything else is drying up…this water stays, and the gators fill it. We’ve counted around 30 gators in this one area during past dry seasons. Today I only saw maybe ten…but give it a couple months and it will be full. Big ones, small ones, everyone laying on top of everybody.
Here’s a couple more gators from this morning:
And here’s a few other big guys I’ve spotted out there in the past….
I’d say the only one I can vouch for on size is this guy… my mom came out with me one morning to photograph wildlife and this monster was crossing the road as the sun was coming up. Later on, after he was long gone, I went back and measured the road to get an idea of his size. I can say for certain he was eleven feet long! It’s funny because he just doesn’t look that big in this photo, but where he crossed (I found the exact spot because I saw his foot prints and tail drag marks) the road was twelve feet wide.
A few alligator factoids for you!
* Female alligators rarely exceed 9 feet in length, but males can grow much larger. The Florida state record for length is a 14 foot 5/8 inch male from Lake Monroe in Seminole County. The Florida record for weight is a 1,043 pound (13 feet 10 1/2 inches long) male from Orange Lake in Alachua County.
* The alligator became the official state reptile of Florida in 1987.
* Spanish sailors visiting the New World thought the unfamiliar alligator was a huge lizard. In Spanish, el lagarto means the lizard. English sailors took the name as allagarter and in time it has become alligator.
* Out of all now living species of animal, the American alligator has the strongest bite known to science. In laboratory conditions it was measured at 9,452 newtons (2,125 lbf).
If you visit Florida (or live here) and want an outing where you are guaranteed to see wild alligators, here’s a few places for you.
Big Cypress Visitor Center: Before you even go into the visitor’s center, be sure to walk out on the boardwalk. You’ll be greeted by one of these smiling faces:
Shark Valley, Everglades National Park: You can take the tram down to the observation tower or just walk along the road. Passing close by to sun bathing gators….this image is real, not photoshopped.
Loop Road: A dirt road that takes you through some really pretty areas, gators hanging out in the water, all types of wading birds, raptors, owls and much more. You might even spot the elusive Florida Panther.
