Guess who's coming to dinner?

[tallyho8]

It's that season again and my chickens are considered lunch for all the predators. This one was under my tractor in the barn when I went to start it. Yes, it's only 4 feet long but it put up a fight when I snared it and brought it across the River Road and put it in the Mississippi.

 

[gstrom99]

WOW! All I have to deal with are raccoons, fox and 'yotes. Be careful!

 

[EddieWalker]

I thought snakes were bad. I've never seen a wild alligator. I know people in my area that have seen them. They are in the Sabine River which is just five miles away, but so far none have come up the creek from there to my place that I know of.

Has anybody ever been attacked by one in your area?

 

[Engineer42]

It's that season again and my chickens are considered lunch for all the predators. This one was under my tractor in the barn when I went to start it. Yes, it's only 4 feet long but it put up a fight when I snared it and brought it across the River Road and put it in the Mississippi.

View attachment 5623724

View attachment 5623725

Anybody need any boots?

 

[tallyho8]

I thought snakes were bad. I've never seen a wild alligator. I know people in my area that have seen them. They are in the Sabine River which is just five miles away, but so far none have come up the creek from there to my place that I know of.

Has anybody ever been attacked by one in your area?

No, I have never heard of anyone being attacked by one in Louisiana. Our alligators do not appear to be as fierce as the ones in Florida and some other places. This is probably because ours are better fed by the large nutria population we have, plus many other small forms of wildlife in our swamps.
Last July we had an 8 footer in the ditch in front of my house. He was a lot harder to capture and drag over the levee to the river.

 

[tallyho8]

Anybody need any boots?

That one was only big enough to make one boot. That 8 footer could have made a pair of boots and a suitcase too!

 

[EddieWalker]

Good to hear that they are not overly dangerous. I guess small pets would be a concern. At least if one is missing, that's gotta be on the list of things that could have happened to it.

I read a news story about a big alligator in a park in Florida that was killed because it was a danger to people and they found it's stomach to be full of pet dogs.

 

[WinterDeere]

The biggest problem with being a chicken, is that everyone likes chicken.

 

[MotorSeven]

Tommie found out that Texas Gators are mean:

A Texas Man Was Attacked And Killed After Ignoring An Alligator Warning

“It was pretty much immediate,” a local police captain told BuzzFeed News of the grisly attack.

www.buzzfeednews.com

 

[dodge man]

We just got back from a trip from southern Florida and the keys. We learned as a rule alligators won’t mess with people, they are pretty lazy. Crocodiles I’m not sure about, might be more aggressive? I’m pretty sure the above pictures are gators.

 

[al3]

Exactly how ‘bouts does a non-reality TV person go about lassoing one of these? Do you need to get the rope in back of the front legs so they don’t slip out while thrashing about? Slip knot?

 

[WinterDeere]

Exactly how ‘bouts does a non-reality TV person go about lassoing one of these? Do you need to get the rope in back of the front legs so they don’t slip out while thrashing about? Slip knot?

For smaller ones, I see catchers in Florida using the same loop on a pole rig that dog catchers use.



Don't think I'd want to try that on an alligator heavier than me, tho. That's my "call a pro" threshold.

 

[tallyho8]

For smaller ones, I see catchers in Florida using the same loop on a pole rig that dog catchers use.

View attachment 5630481

Don't think I'd want to try that on an alligator heavier than me, tho. That's my "call a pro" threshold.

I have a pole like that which is 5' long that I will use on gators up to 4'. Five-foot gators weigh twice as much as a 4' one and put up a pretty good fight so I have an 8' pole for them. Over 5', they outweigh me and I use an assistant. Over 8' we call a game warden or Swamp People.

 

[tallyho8]

We just got back from a trip from southern Florida and the keys. We learned as a rule alligators won’t mess with people, they are pretty lazy. Crocodiles I’m not sure about, might be more aggressive? I’m pretty sure the above pictures are gators.

Florida Wildlife Control said there have been 487 unprovoked alligator bites on people between 1948 and 2024. Of those, 339 were major bites and 27 were fatal.

 

[ArlyA]

How the !^%! can you live there?

 

[Jstpssng]

alcohol may have been a factor in the man's decision to enter the water

I pretty much had this figured out upon reading the first paragraph...

at an outdoor bar at a marina in Orange, Texas, around 2:30 a.m. local time

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes...

 

[WinterDeere]

How the !^%! can you live there?

I could put up with the alligators. It's the humidity, that gets me!

My mother owns a waterfront house in a retirement community along the Florida gulf coast, and old people discovering gators in their garages, back yards, or hiding under their cars is not unusual there. Old folks tend to not move very quickly, or fall over when they do... bad combination!

They come north for the summers. While the July average daily high in Naples Florida is no hotter than Philadelphia, thanks to being surrounded on all sides by water, their crippling humidity makes their heat index run about 10F hotter than here.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I've been driving through Abbeville a lot lately and there is a good-sized gator lying dead on the side of the road. I'd say it's 7 or 8 foot. I'd hate to hit one that size with my truck.

 

[ponytug]

I'm always impressed with what people are willing to live with or adapt to. It seems to me as if outsiders tend to overestimate the "new to them" risks, and locals tend to minimize the "known to them" local risks.

Me, nope, not doing cobra territory, nor any of the large crocodiles (e.g. salt water, Nile). Then again, we live with brown recluses, black widows, tarantulas, mountain lions, poisonous amphibians, rattlesnakes, and feral pigs, and only the last two worry me. I have a healthy respect for any animal that can move faster than I can. Go figure. I never said I was totally rational.

All the best,

Peter

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Is there ever an instance where you are allowed to shoot them if they are getting too close?