Alligator insanity

[Hazel Grant]

Didn't see much wildlife at Hilton Head this past week but did see this gator in the backyard of a house....and just as I was setting up for a photo (from a safe distance I thought) this guy ran between the houses and clicked a photo. Maybe I should have been braver, but I don't think he realized how quickly these guys can move on land. (BTW, he had a Michigan State tshirt on, just saying....)

[Daniel Cadieux]

This is where a longer lens would be handy!

[Hazel Grant]

Yes, all he had with him was a point and shoot.

[Christopher Miller]

Definitely would want a nice long zoom to photograph one of those guys, just to be on the safe side. TFS

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

They are pretty common around here

[Diane Miller]

The first time I ever saw one in the wild was at Jungle Gardens on Avery Island. Several cars were stopped and I stopped to see what they were looking at and saw one in the water, just the snout and eyes visible but looking mean. I put on my long lens and slowly approached, wondering how close I could / should get. Just then a little kid about two and two grandmother-aged women wandered out on the grass, a scene similar to this one. The little kid was running around full speed in a random pattern and the two women seemed oblivious to the gator. Then one of them yelled, "Now Bubba, don't you go in that water now, hear!!" So I figured all I had to do was keep Lil' Bubba between me and the gator.

[Hazel Grant]

Hope Bubba is still around:) by the way, saw this alligator in a backyard in SC and came home to southern Illinois for see a posting by a friend that a bobcat was in the backyard of her yard----only a block from my house. Glad my little dog will be in a fence.

[Marina Scarr]

People get crazy close to gators here in Florida.

[Don Lacy]

Just go to Shark Valley in the Glades and you can walk right by them at about three to four feet. I was talking to a ranger there one day and she told me she had to write a guy a ticket for posing his daughter right next to a gator for a picture. They are not really that dangerous as long as they have an escape route you will be fine unless of course you are walking a small dog then they think you're giving them a treat.