Charlotte County Florida Weekly

What alligators can teach us about choosing a path





 

 

Did you know that most species of wildlife are more inclined to run rather than fight? This trait for all creatures is generally true except for mating season where the male species will fight to compete and show off for the potential female mate. During the rest of the year, if an animal or other species is confronted with a threatening situation, it will retreat or change its path to avoid conflict. Quite a difference from Homo sapiens, which have an ego and want to be seen as the alpha male (or female).

Let’s look at some examples I’ve observed. While out fishing the flats, the shallow clear areas of Charlotte Harbor, the fish will abruptly change direction as a predator approaches. If you have ever watched a large school of baitfish or a large flock of flying birds, they all seem to move as a wave to avoid any conflict. On the Myakka and up the Peace rivers this time of year, alligators are abundant on the mud banks. They are seemingly slow to move or react and can lull observers to get closer to them. This is bad for their food source — which could be fish, turtles, birds or other animals — but good for the gator. Most times as you approach a gator on the shore sunning itself, it will move slowly into the water with only its nose and eyes above the surface. Don’t be deceived by a gator’s sluggish behavior — it can react quickly and move on land at speeds of 20 miles per hour, if only for a short distance. They say if you are ever being chased by a gator to run in a zigzag pattern because the gator’s tail will throw it off balance. You go ahead and try that — I’ll climb a tree.

 

 

Please do not feed gators. It is human tendency to try to rule the animal kingdom. There is a name for this: the Tarzan Syndrome. We think humans are superior beings and try to have the wild creatures follow our commands. Transplanted northerners who live on canals, waterways, ponds, lakes and even golf courses want to show off for their relatives or friends who visit. They take some scraps of food or bread or marshmallows and throw them to the gator. The gator gets closer. This disturbs the natural reaction of the gator to stay away from humans.

Your neighbor down the street has some grandkids from Ohio visiting and playing by the water’s edge. The same gator sees an opportunity, lunges out of the water to the edge of the bank and grabs the kid in his jaws. The sound of the kid screaming will haunt this family and neighbors for the rest of their lives. A kid is dead, and a gator will be hunted and killed because now he is considered a nuisance gator. This Ohio kid and his family did not throw bread or food to this gator, but other people did. They are responsible for that kid’s death.

Does this sound exaggerated? Think back to last summer when a gator snatched a child at Disney World. Do not feed gators or any wild animal.

Sometimes you’ll see a gator facing one way in the water and then, in an instant — with a big swirling splash — the gator disappears from sight. You think it would swim in the direction it was facing but just the opposite is true. It quickly turns and darts out of the way in the other direction.

Wild creatures are smart; they need to be to survive. They seek to be in an environment that will allow them to flourish. We, as humans, could and should learn from these creatures. Sometimes we feel as if our life is at a standstill or we are spinning our wheels but not getting anywhere. This is when we, too, should change direction. In the Marine Corps I learned we never retreat — we attack from a different direction. It is scary to do something different other than our normal routine, but we should occasionally seek out the excitement of a new path. New challenges keep us feeling invigorated and out of a rut.

Choose to do something that makes you a little afraid. This will often result in a feeling of accomplishment. It is doesn’t feel right, change your path, try another route. Watch nature around you and see how it survives. Learn a lesson from our great outdoors.

Fair winds; calm seas. ¦

— Capt. Dennis Kirk has been traveling the Peace River since 1979. His life adventures are written from various chapters in his three decades of experience in Southwest Florida. He is part owner of the Nav-A-Gator, a riverfront restaurant and marina in Lake Suzy, just off Kings Highway. For more information, call 627- 3474.


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