The Orange County sheriff said Wednesday that the body of a 2-year-old boy attacked by an alligator at Disney World has been recovered.
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There have been 23 fatalities caused by Florida alligators since 1973.
When prey animals are too large to be swallowed whole, an alligator will stash its kill underwater, pinning it under a submerged log or anywhere it can be wedged in for safe keeping.
Sandy beach or not, people have to assume that alligators could be in any sizeable Florida pond or lake, Main said.
While that’s comforting for people in, say, Arizona, the state of Florida has over 1,000 miles of coastline and countless marshes and rivers, especially in the southern portion of the state around the Everglades.
Contact with hornets, wasps, and bees killed 921 people.
Jack Hanna, director emeritus of Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, told CBS News that alligators can be found nearly everywhere in Florida.
“It was a tough message to deliver to them”, the sheriff said.
Despite the recent spate of alligator attacks on humans in the state, Florida is not amiss in its alligator management system since it has dozens of trappers who wear camouflage and the state sells a limited number of hunting permits.
If you happen to lock eyes with an alligator on land, forget running in a zigzag.
Nick Wiley, executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which spearheaded the search, said the American alligator was feeding and likely confused the small child for a dog or a raccoon.
“The American alligator is a reptile, it does not have a thought process, and anything that’s moving could be thought of as food”, Urban said. And they eat just about anything: fish, turtles, insects, crustaceans, other alligators and small mammals, including pets.
Officials said they removed five alligators from the lake.
To avoid provoked attacks, the FWC advises that humans never approach alligators, regardless of size, or feed the wild animals. Florida averages about seven serious unprovoked bites a year, and officials put the odds of someone being seriously injured by an unprovoked alligator in Florida at roughly one in 2.4 million.
Florida alligator victims, which include eight children and 15 adults, had been in bodies of fresh water. She’s an expert on alligators.
If an alligator bites you, make a commotion: hit or kick the alligator, or poke it in its eyes, because alligators will retreat from prey they can’t easily overwhelm.
Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks Alligator Program coordinator Ricky Flynt said people can play a direct role in negating the likelihood of an alligator attack.
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Should you end up becoming prey, make noise and move as much as you can.
