Man loses part of leg in alligator attack at RV park

A 72-year-old man, presumably an RVer, lost the lower part of his leg in an alligator attack on Friday, April 14. Brevard County, Florida, rescue officials were called to the Great Outdoors RV Nature & Golf Resort in Titusville after an emergency call reported a gator attack near a park retention pond. Dispatch recordings spell out the terrible details: “Per the caller, we have confirmed amputation.” The horrific story sounds like a chapter out of Outdoor Life magazine’s This happened to me feature, but, sad to say, alligator attacks aren’t unheard of. Could you make a gator getaway?

Five million alligators in ten states

Alligator attacks happen. Imagine yourself in any of these scenarios: You open your front door and find a surprise visitor. A gator lunges at you, biting your upper thigh. Or when you take Bowser out for his daily stroll—a 10-foot alligator grabs and kills you! Both these events have happened just this year in Florida.

But don’t write off Florida from your travel plans. The Everglades State has plenty of gator company. There are an estimated five million “wild” alligators (no numbers on “tame” ones) across 10 U.S. states. Gators range from Florida, north into North Carolina, and as far west as the southeast corner of Oklahoma. In terms of numbers, there’s roughly two million gators in Louisiana, the state with the most gators.

Rare occurrence—but a quick “gator getaway” course can help

If goosebumps are rising, settle on down. In real-life terms, unprovoked alligator attacks are a fairly rare situation. In a 73-year period ending in 2021, Florida’s gators only accounted for 26 “death by gator” records; that was from a total of 442 bites in the same time frame. Still, if you RV in alligator country, it’s not bad to take a quick course on alligator safety.

Tennyson could have been poetizing about gators when he wrote, “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Gators are busy with their reproductive tango from spring all the way into summer. Mama Gator tends to be a bit snappish when she’s guarding a hatch of eggs, and even more so when the eggs hatch. That could go on into fall. Winter, when things are cold (from a gator perspective) is probably the “safest” time of the year. When temps are in the 80s, gators spend most of their daytime drowsing. Planning on a little skinny dip? Mooning in the moonlight could bring you face-to-face (or some other part of your anatomy) with an unwelcome face-full of teeth.

Generally speaking, you put yourself in the most danger of an alligator attack if you provoke the gliding reptile. To that end, here are some simple rules:

• Don’t feed the gators! Left alone, gators generally aren’t interested in humans. But when they begin to associate two arms, two legs, and a head with food, trouble begins.
• Don’t feed the duckies or turtles if they live in gator waters.
• This should be obvious—Don’t grab a gator by the tail! For some reason, alligators really resent this and tend to react badly.
• Don’t mess with gator babies. Yes, they’re cute, but a foot-long alligator is probably being watched by a mama that’s 10 times as large.
• If you’re out on the water, don’t slap your kayak paddles on the water to scare off a gator. They’ll likely take that action as a threat. Best to keep paddling and ignore them.
• If you see a gator on land, stay back at least 60 feet. If a gator lunges at you, or hisses, one of you hasn’t got the tape measure out. Back off!
• Driving and an alligator strolls out on the pavement? Stop and ponder the imponderable question of, “Why did the alligator cross the road?” A motorist was once killed when he smashed into a gator—they’re really big and heavy.

For more great gator getaway tips, visit the Florida Wildlife Commissions site, Living with Alligators and Crocodiles, and click on, “Living With Alligators brochure”.

As to the man who lost his leg to the gator in Titusville, he was airlifted to a trauma center for treatment. An alligator trapper was called to the scene—he removed two gators, but it wasn’t clear if either of them were responsible for the sad incident. [Other reports state deputies from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office found the gator in the water with the man’s foot protruding from its mouth. It was reportedly shot dead by officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.]

##RVT1101b