Allure of the Alligators

Alligators at Wakulla Springs State Park

Whether we blame it on sensationalist news always looking for a creature story, or people growing up on Jurassic Park-like stories of dinosaurs, when visiting Florida most people want to see alligators. This fierce looking creature and the nearest living relative to the long dead dinosaurs tops the ‘must see’ list, at least the natural world ‘must see’ list. I suspect a Disney character or a Spring Break beach tops the general list depending on age.

We love playing tourist in our own backyard, and in our own state, and learning more about both. We also continuously look for ways to improve our own nature and historical interpretations, and what better way to do both than to listen to other professionals. Boat tours in our many parks, springs, and rivers tend to be a relaxing, interesting way to accomplish this. Nearly always, we hear the boat captain answer the same question any number of times “Will we see alligators?” The question asked most of the boat captains usually garnered a response of “most likely” or “it depends”.

Most slow moving fresh water in the southern U.S. coastal states eventually attracts alligators. When we moved to central Florida almost twenty years ago we moved into a new housing development. Within a month or two of moving in one of the nearby retention ponds featured a medium sized alligator sunning itself most days. It still remained when we left for a coastal location a little over a year later.

Sightings depend, of course, on the time of day, temperature, how well traveled the area, and a host of other factors. In a park or preserve however, “most likely” fits the bill. We recently went on a boat tour out of Wakulla Springs, one we usually take whenever visiting the area. We chose the last boat of the day, thinking it would be the least crowded. However, choosing to travel in Florida during March which also happens to be Spring Break week for local and northern schools, crowds must be expected. The boat was completely full.

We boarded toward the end, and heard the inevitable question as we took our seats. We saw alligators, lots of alligators. Some large, some small, some swimming, most sunning, and some quite close. Every alligator sighting caused a sudden lurch of nearly everyone on the boat to the side of the sighting. My favorite was one larger alligator watching us from a seeming nest of gators, look at those tails next to him. 

I’ve lived here a long time, and visited the state often before that. I may not run to see every alligator sighted anymore, but I still look for alligators, and I still take photographs of them. As familiar as they now are, they still fascinate me.