Dog Pack Kills Alligator in Florida!

Off-topic
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At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty. The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the “apex predator” in it’s natural eco-system, can still fall victim to implemented “team work” strategy, made possible due to the tight knit social structure and “survival of the fittest pack mentality”, bred into the canines over the last several hundreds of years by natural selection. See the attached remarkable photograph courtesy of Nature Magazine.

Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while the remainder of the pack prevents the beast from rolling. Not for the squeamish!

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HA…That is so cute:D

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People down here (in FL) sometimes get anacondas or boa constrictors as pets (don’t ask me why), but then the snakes get too large to care for and the owners abandon them in the Everglades. This has caused a problem among the native wildlife, especially between the anacondas and the alligators. Apparently both are about equal fighters, and there have been a few incidents where they would challenge (i.e. try to eat) the other one. I saw something a few months ago about an anaconda that was trying to eat an alligator; the alligator was almost completely inside of the anaconda (remember, snakes eat their prey whole) and the snake burst. Both creatures died.

Anacondas can grow to ~20 feet, and Alligators have been seen up to ~19 feet.

The biggest I’ve seen was probably about 12-14 feet, and that’s about 3 miles behind my house (our property backs up to Johnathon Dickinson State Park (a 17,000 acre wildlife park))

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Truly speaks burjzyntski, almost.

State may try reptile-wrangling
By Paige St. John
CAPITOL BUREAU
369 words
10 February 2006
The Tallahassee Democrat
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English
© Copyright 2006, The Tallahassee Democrat. All Rights Reserved.

Alligator-eating, headline-grabbing Burmese pythons in the Everglades are giving reptile regulators the push they need to seek a law governing exotic snakes and giant lizards much like guns.

At a Capitol news conference Thursday, Rep. Ralph Poppell, R-Vero Beach, and Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, announced intentions to require $100 permits for anyone hoping to own a giant python or Nile monitor lizard, among other yet-to-be named exotic reptiles.

It’s disposal, not necessarily ownership, of the critters that sponsors want to control.

Though most released or escaped scaly pets are small and considered little threat in their new South Florida homes, some are large enough, and eat enough, to cause concern. A breeding population of Burmese python, for instance, is now established in the Everglades National Park.

Wildlife officers last year trapped 71 Burmese pythons, not counting the 13-foot python that made headlines by eating a 6-foot alligator and then exploding before it could digest its dinner.

“This is a worthwhile bill, but it will be worthless without law enforcement and funding,” said Eugene Bessette, an avid python breeder and member of the advisory council helping the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission draft its proposed legislation.

Bessette endorsed expansion of the state’s snake permitting program, saying it will help the retail industry in the long run.

“What we want to do, more than anything, is eliminate the impulse buy,” he said. “Reptiles make great pets; we’ve just got to do a better job across the board, the industry as well as regulators, in educating the public.”

State game wardens already can regulate ownership of captive poisonous snakes.

Species on the control list will likely include the Burmese python, reticulated python, African rock python, amethystine python, anaconda and Nile monitor lizard.

Poppell said a key part of the proposed legislation will be an amnesty program that allows owners no longer infatuated with their gigantic lizards and snakes to drop them off, penalty free.

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That’s right, they were Pythons; thanks JJuggle.

There were a few incidents a couple of years ago (actually, probably about 8 years ago) where a bunch of dogs went missing from the park (JDSP) because they went swimming in the Loxahatchee river (before it was forbidden to swim there) and alligators ate them.

People used to be able to swim in the river, but the death of a Boy scout ended that. In recent years the park has been trying to designate ‘swimming areas’ in the river & estuaries. I still wouldn’t swim in there, it’s too hard to keep alligators from going where they want to.

Canoeing is allowed, as is kayaking, fishing, and other non-invasive activities; though a friend of mine went wakeboarding/skurfing in there and didn’t have any problems. The truth is, they’re more scared of us than we are of them (in most cases).

It’s scary to think about how the gators kill their prey, though. sometimes they wait underwater at the riverbank for a deer to come and drink, and then they jump out and grab the deer, spin rapidly, killing the deer almost instantly, and then drown them underwater and store them under a log to eat later - once the deer is dead and decaying: they don’t eat animals while they’re still alive.

I can’t imagine that Scout’s pain. Worse than a shark attack, I’d bet.

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It’s a little strange that if you have a monitor lizard, gaimen, wolf, mountian lion etc. that if it escapes and causes a problem you are going to pay BIG TIME.
When a state re-introduces a once native animal which then becomes a problem such as : gator eats dogs, golfers, children etc. or beavers cause millions of dollars of timber damage and flooding due to obstruction of irrugation ditches, we have both of these problems here in Arkansas, it comes under the heading of tough shit. The state has no liability.
If you shoot the damn alligator which is waiting to eat your dogs on your own property you’ve pissed in the DNR holy water, federal and state wrath has no end.
If a doctor, engineer, mechanic or almost anybody elce makes an error in judgment that’s malpractice, negligence etc.
When the state screws the pooch, that’s restoration of nature.
It’s hard for me to see what’s restorative about re-introducing a species into a habitat that’s 100 years advanced since the animal was last in the area.