Any good Alligator or Croc stories?

[batosai117]

I've been reading all these Big Cat stories and was wondering if any of you guys had some good Alligator and Crocodile stories to share. I'm pretty sure somebody from East Texas or Louisiana has to have at least one good story.

I look forward to hearing them, J.

 

[Lycosa]

I was bit by an eight foot Siamese Croc at Reptiland.

 

[batosai117]

I was bit by an eight foot Siamese Croc at Reptiland.

Wow, I didn't know there was such a thing as a siamese croc .

 

[tonym]

When I was stationed in N.W. Florida, I did alot of Bass fishing on alot of the lil lakes and there were no shortage of gators; but they pretty much left us alone.

 

[Watchful]

Yep, Siamese are rare, but they're out there. I've only seen them at Alligator Adventure in South Carolina!

I have only one completely unimpressive story.

Sanibel Island, Florida, 1989.

Walking through the park there, when a crowd of teens comes running wildly up to me, yelling that someone may have seen an alligator up the trail.

So I step off the trail, letting them run by. I don't know if they were running from one, or wanted to see one.

They disappear, yelling, around a curve into some trees.

I glance down at my leg, and there, about ten feet away, is this massive mo fo alligator just sitting there. Not scared of me.

"Oh," I think, realizing that ten feet is not far enough from a ten-foot long gator.

So I step back onto the trail, and he remains as unimpressed as the reader is no doubt by this story.

I walk on.

 

[Watchful]

Wow, I didn't know there was such a thing as a siamese croc .

 

[tonym]

Thats a big gator bro!, The biggest I've seen was maybe 7'.

I think Sanibel has the biggest gators cause its a preserve.

 

[batosai117]

Man, up close in person I would have shitted just seeing an alligator 10 feet away from me, even more seeing one 10' long. The biggest one I've seen was 21'(edit: not sure exaclty how big, but when you're 12 years old anything looks super sized) at an alligator park in Louisiana when I was 12. It was so big I thought it was fake, then the lady giving the tour slapped it on the snout with a long pole and it raised it's head and opened it's mouth.

Other than that there is the usual one or two encounters at the local wildlife preserves nearby.

 

[storl]

I have a gator story from I was in the Okefenokee Swamp in south GA a few years back, in an outboard motor boat rented from the park people. My now wife and I motored around for most of the day, seeing lots of gators while we were out. Most were completely uninterested in us, and usually ducked under the water and swam away when they saw or heard the boat.

One gator was a little more adventurous though. The gator was obviously on his last legs, with scars across his face, one eye scarred shut, and a good bit of his teeth missing. We stopped at an area way back in the swamp to look around, and he swam up to the boat to see what was going on. He kept on biting (more like gumming) the boat, and I would have to turn the motor off constantly because he would swim right under or next to it. The old guy obviously couldn't do anything to the boat, and I wasn't about to get in the water with him, so I wasn't in need of self defense or anything and didn't want the motor to mangle him. Maybe he was just tired and had a death wish. I actually have a video of him around somewhere, so I'll try to dig it up.

 

[batosai117]

Hey storl, did your wife freak out? I know for a fact that my fiance would freak out like a cat being thrown in water and then condemn me for even dragging her on the boat in the first place :grumpy:.

 

[TemplarKnight21c]

A 10' gator has nothing at all to be afraid of in the natural world. It is the tippy top predator in its environment, and nothing short of another crocodilian can touch it.

 

[storl]

Hey storl, did your wife freak out? I know for a fact that my fiance would freak out like a cat being thrown in water and then condemn me for even dragging her on the boat in the first place :grumpy:.

Nah, although she was not pleased when I started reaching out and grabbing the gator's tail.

 

[Watchful]

A 10' gator has nothing at all to be afraid of in the natural world. It is the tippy top predator in its environment, and nothing short of another crocodilian can touch it.

Yeah, you know I wasn't too nervous. It seemed a little too skinny to eat me. Dunno, really; I think if he'd have spun, gaped, and hissed, I'd have made it to the mainland in one leap, though!

 

[batosai117]

Yeah, you know I wasn't too nervous. It seemed a little too skinny to eat me. Dunno, really; I think if he'd have spun, gaped, and hissed, I'd have made it to the mainland in one leap, though!

LOL, I would have beat you to land in the middle of it spinning around

 

[dougo83]

A friend of mine thought it would be cute to spit beer in a gator's eyes while we were fishing on the dock at Texana State Park IIRC. The little bugger (about 4.5') came up on the dock after us. I never realized how fast they can move on dry land...or how much faster my fat arse can move when properly stimulated...

My only other encounter with a gator was in Port Fourchon, LA. I was delivering eqpt down there when my Dodge got a flat tire. I hopped out and began setting up the jack and all when a fairly large log a few feet from the road started moving. I didn't stop to see which way it was going or to pick up the jack. I just drove on the rim to my drop-off point. Scared the hell outta me.

PeACE
Dougo

 

[Tasselhoff]

I was 14 and had gone fishing with my best friend. We lived in southern miss. so gators were part of everydy life. any way we go down this narrow canal (30 feet wide). We are in a small john boat with a 1 1/2 hp engine. All of a sudden my friend freaks out claiming he saw a huge huge gator. I laugh at him, make of him the normal stuff. We turn around to get out of the canal and a little baby gator charges the boat. I reach down and pick it up and throw at my friend laughing about his HUGE gator. About that time a 9 foot monster launches off the bank to our right and hits the water right in front of us. Scared me to death. thing was Godzilla and was seemed 4 feet away. My friend quickly beeches the boat - I jump out and run - leaving him swaying in the back of the boat in the middle of the canal with monster gator. We eventually made it back- no one believed us until 3 weeks later when trappers had to move it out of a nearby pool house.

There is also the story about the cajun that threw a 3 foot gator into our boat- but that's for another time.

 

[Watchful]

LOL, I would have beat you to land in the middle of it spinning around

I'd have picked you up and carried you if I could!

I never realized how fast they can move on dry land...

Something dark and dim stirs in my memory, and I'm not sure if it's true...but I seem to recall being told that a gator can move as fast on land as a person can jump, dash, or leap. However, they can't change directions as rapidly as a person, so jumping to the side and then running for cover is a better bet.

I also do not know how long a gator can sustain a forward motion.

 

[Brian Jones]

In Belize, we fed a chicken to a 16 foot Saltwater Gator, half a chicken at a time. When we threw it, the gator just lifted its head and caught the chicken in the air. It was the fastest head turn and snap I ever saw from an animal.

 

[Outdoors Fanatic]

Man, up close in person I would have shitted just seeing an alligator 10 feet away from me, even more seeing one 10' long. The biggest one I've seen was 21'(edit: not sure exaclty how big, but when you're 12 years old anything looks super sized) at an alligator park in Louisiana when I was 12. It was so big I thought it was fake, then the lady giving the tour slapped it on the snout with a long pole and it raised it's head and opened it's mouth.

Other than that there is the usual one or two encounters at the local wildlife preserves nearby.

You think those were big? Look at the size of this big sumbitch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssmTN2kCgMQ

 

[TemplarKnight21c]

In Belize, we fed a chicken to a 16 foot Saltwater Gator, half a chicken at a time. When we threw it, the gator just lifted its head and caught the chicken in the air. It was the fastest head turn and snap I ever saw from an animal.

Alligators are freshwater critters.