Stocked with alligators I'll bet. :-)


Eisboch wrote:
As a matter of fact, yes. Not "stocked", but one had moved into the
man-made lake and had been there for several years. Each year he (she?) got
bigger and bigger. We finally called the Florida wildlife people and they
sent a trapper out. It took him several attempts (meaning visits) to get
it, but they finally caught it. It measured over 8 feet. I didn't mind
having it there until we witnessed it attacking and killing a smaller
alligator that tried to move in. That was enough. It was amazing and
eye-opening to watch.


Those things are dangerous.... many people badly
undersestimate them and very few people realize how
widespread they are. Not that I'm an advocate of killing
them, after all we moved into their space.

And they don't have to be 8' long either. A 3-footer can rip
your arm off, or munch your dog.

I'll never forget the first time I went frog gigging in the
swamps around Jacksonville. As we poled the boat down a
suburban creek toward frog country, there were increasing
numbers of shiny pink dots on the surface of the water. At
first I paid them no attention, but I noticed some were big,
and the numbers increased until we were surrounded by what
seemed like hundreds of them.

"What the heck are those?" I asked.
"Alligators. Their eyes shine pink at night," was the answer.

"Bulls%%%" says I, and grabbed the flashlight.

Well looky there... a hundred (give or take a few)
alligators, staring at us. With the flashlight beam on them,
their eyes didn't look pink. Most of them were a foot or two
long, but it was still disconcerting.

DSK