Alligators get hot and horny killing three in Florida

There have been only 17 human casualties to alligators since 1948 so why have three people in a week suffered a gruesome death? Blame the mating season and a drought in the Everglades which has dispersed them over a wider area in search of food. That and stupid humans who won't stay out of the water. And if you don't want to encounter alligators, the best advice is to stay out of Florida...

Hunters capture a ten foot alligator they believe killed a Florida woman on Tuesday

"We live in a wildlife state in and among many different species," said Willie Puz, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Be alert to your surroundings. Any freshwater body in Florida can be home to alligators." Mr. Puz attributed the recent attacks to factors like warm waters and recent droughtlike conditions in the area. "The weather is heating up, and the water is heating up," he said. "Alligators need heat to regulate their body temperature, and when it heats up, they become more active." The lack of rain, Mr. Puz said, means that the "lakes and streams and canals are lower than they should be, which concentrates the alligators' food sources and possibly the alligators."

Tourists and residents in Florida are being warned not to swim after dark or in areas of thick vegetation, to keep pets on a lead and to stay away from canals between dusk and dawn, when alligators are at their most active.

Last week, Yovy Suarez Jiménez, 28, died when an alligator apparently attacked her as she jogged near a canal in the South Florida city of Sunrise. Ms. Jiménez was dragged into the canal, according to the medical examiner who performed the autopsy.Both of Ms. Jiménez's arms were severed, and she had bites to her back and right leg. A 10-foot reptile was captured and killed at the weekend with the victim's arms still in its stomach.

At Lake St George, 80 miles north of Orlando, a 23-year-old holidaymaker from Tennessee, Annmarie Campbell, was snorkelling in a metre of water when she was seized by an alligator estimated at almost three metres long. Her friends struggled to free her from the reptile's jaws. "The people she was staying with came around and found her inside the gator's mouth," Marion County fire-rescue captain Joe Amigliore told Associated Press. "They jumped into the water and somehow pulled her out of the gator's mouth." She was declared dead at the scene.

On Sunday, in Dunedin, on Florida's west coast, the dismembered body of Judy Cooper, a 43-year-old a mother of two was discovered. Police found drug-taking equipment at the scene and a wildlife spokesman said it was not known what condition she was in at the time but the Pinellas County coroner said an alligator played a part in her death.

Fearful Florida residents are taking heed of advice from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to take extra care near the state's extensive network of waterways. Sandy Jacobson, who lives on a lake in Sunrise, said she no longer allowed her two sons, aged five and nine, out to play on their own.

"We lost the screen around our swimming pool in Hurricane Wilma last year and there's no barrier between the house and the lake any more," she said. "It makes you much more wary. You take it for granted that there are alligators here but we've never had attacks like this. I always check the banks of the lake for alligators before going out."

Commuter towns such as Sunrise and Weston, built on reclaimed land on the eastern border of the Everglades, are especially vulnerable. Officials in Weston post alligator safety advice to residents on the town's website and cable TV channel. "Most of it is common sense," said Denise Barrett, the town's communications director. "It's an offence to feed, touch or harass an alligator. These canals are not recreational canals, they are for storm water, drainage and water management. We tell people to stay away."

FWC spokesman Willie Puz said more than 17,000 calls were made to the state's nuisance alligator hotline last year and most were passed on to commercial trappers. He estimated that they were receiving 10 times as many calls this year. Alligators more than 1.2 metres long are killed and their carcasses sold for meat, while any under that length are usually returned to the Everglades.

"I'll stick a rotten pig lung on a shark hook as bait and reel them in," said Todd Hardwick, whose Miami-based company, Pesky Critters, has a contract with the state to remove "nuisance" reptiles from lakes and canals for more than 20 years. "We prioritise the big gators and problem gators first, those that have been fed and lost their fear of humans. A 6ft gator that has been fed causes me much more concern than a 10ft one that still has a healthy respect for people."

Mr Hardwick adds: "Alligators have always been the number one attraction in Florida, right up there with Mickey Mouse. Now they've become our number one villain."

"People either want them killed or want to get close to them," said Frank Mazzotti a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida. "They don't exhibit the in-between behavior, which is respect them, don't get close. It's just good common sense to exercise extra caution."

Alligator facts

• Alligators feed in the early evening and are most active in summer.
• They rarely attack humans, preferring to take smaller animals less likely to put up a fight.
• Biologists believe some attacks are prompted by swimmers accidentally brushing the creatures.
• Large alligators - males can reach 4.3m and weigh as much as 450kg - are more likely to attack humans.
• Each year, the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission receives more than 15,000 calls about alligators wandering into garages, swimming pools and golf course ponds, and has documented 359 attacks on humans since 1948. Before last week there had been 17 confirmed deaths.
• Although no longer endangered, alligators remain protected.
  

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