With iguana invading toilets, deadly hybrid super snakes and poisonous giant frogs, no corner of Florida is ever completely safe from the threat of a harmful reptile.
Now, with the looming start of the rainy season, another threat is emerging from the swamps: amorous crocodiles invading urban areas in an annual pursuit of love.
The 2021 season looks set to start live. Last week, the sheriff’s office in Hillsborough was called to handle a 10-meter gate hiding under a parked car in Tampa.
This followed the discovery of a Pinellas Province man of a 7-meter reptile hiding in his backyard before taking a dive into the family pool, and a joint effort by Venice police and deputies of the sheriff in Sarasota to remove a large gate from a housing complex.
Perhaps the most beautiful example in a video of two crocodiles participating in a mating ritual was captured by a Bradenton resident and posted on YouTube.
“I do not have to leave my backyard to see these two hurdles throw around,” wrote Gordon Silver, the gator videographer.
April is the last month of Florida’s dry season and the beginning of the alligators’ annual courtship. Rising temperatures awaken the reptiles’ metabolism, and they become more energetic and travel further in search of food and companions.
“As a reminder: warm spring weather means crocodiles are more active and visible,” says the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in its online advice to live with crocodiles and crocodiles.
‘It also means they are observed baking in the sun while regulating their body temperature. Never feed a crocodile and keep your distance when you see one. Swim only in designated swimming areas during daylight hours. And keep pets in a leash and away from the water. ‘
Most crocodile mating takes place in May and June, with the nest at the end of June and July. Females lay an average of 32 to 46 eggs that hatch in late summer or early fall.
Despite the fact that about a third of the nests were destroyed by predators, according to the state mostly washable, alligators live in a healthy number in all 67 counties in Florida, with about 1.3 million nationwide.
The state has a hotline for alligator nuisances and a network of freelance trappers. Most alligators that are removed are killed humanely and sold for meat and their skin.
Although alligators can be more aggressive during the mating season and human encounters are more likely, the threat remains relatively low.
There have been 26 recorded human deaths involving alligators since records began in 1948, showing state data and 433 incidents of bites ranging from minor to serious.
Just as symbolic of Florida as Disney World and Nasa, the giant reptiles still hold a certain mystique for the state’s 21.5 million inhabitants and its many visitors.
Last September, Mark Johnson, an artist from Port St Lucie, made a vivid self-portrait of an 8-foot alligator bumping its teeth into his thigh as he walked his dog.
In November, a 74-year-old man freed his puppy from the jaws of a crocodile in a lake near his home in Estero. In the video of the incident, a composite Richard Wilbanks was seen holding his cigar in his jaws throughout.