Gator Attacks Baffle Longtime Alligator Guide

 

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"I've been around alligators all my life, and I've never heard of something like this last attack," he said. "It doesn't make sense. Alligators are not that way."

Coltrane is convinced that investigators will find that there is more to this story.

Sharing Space

As he navigates the airboat westward, Coltrane stops by a dry patch of grass where a 6-foot alligator rests next to the water. It is Jumper. He seems utterly uninterested in our arrival.

Coltrane said there is no mystery to coexisting with alligators.

"You should just respect them. Anytime you're around water -- anywhere there's water in south Florida -- sooner or later there's a good chance there will be an alligator," he said. "Even swimming pools that are fenced in … tend to get alligators during the mating season when they're traveling. Just respect them and be aware when you're around water."

And spring is mating season, Coltrane noted. During mating season, males have been known to travel up to 50 miles to mate.

"Why are there so many alligators invading human habitat?" I asked him.

He rejects the premise of the question.

"Alligators moving into human habitat?" he shoots back. "It's more like humans into the alligators' habitat. All of south Florida is actually built on everglades. We have over a thousand people move here each week. The building is coming out further, which is shrinking the alligators' habitat and our alligator population is growing very rapidly and doing very well. So it's not the alligators coming into our area, it's us moving into their area."

As Florida's population grows, alligators have rapidly become visitors in their own home.