Neighborhood with alligators in Florida (7 photos)

Florida is home to a huge number of alligators. However, despite their myriad numbers, they very rarely attack people.





You don't eat me, I don't shoot you. Agreed?

Thousands of alligators roam freely on the streets of Florida, but here they are not afraid. We are used to living peacefully.



A minute of mathematics. The US states of Florida and Louisiana have a combined population of 26 million people. And more than 3 million alligators. It turns out that for every 8.6 people there is an alligator. And now the news is also talking about the invasion of these reptiles in American cities - there are even more of them! This sounds EXTREMELY dangerous. But why haven’t the locals declared war on their scaly neighbors yet?





We are the law here!

First of all, they announced it. And we even managed to win! By the 1970s, American alligators were almost exterminated, with tens of thousands of individuals remaining from the population. Fortunately, the authorities realized it in time and managed to protect the reptiles from final extinction. The alligators themselves did not disappoint either - they quickly multiplied and regained their lost positions. Since then, Americans have been cautious. They are afraid that alligators may not survive the second total extermination.



And secondly, there is no particular need to fight alligators. Yes, if you throw in facts without context, then anyone will decide that these are terrible creatures. They are huge, eat everything that is not pinned down, and are capable of causing terrible injuries with both their jaws and their muscular tails. However, since the 1940s, only 34 deaths from alligators have been recorded. During this time, a disproportionate number of people died from dogs, cows and horses!



But this does not mean that the locals cuddle with alligators. The discomfort of living next to giant reptiles is still present. And people learned to resolve all conflicts peacefully. For example, in states in the Southeast of the United States there is a special service for catching alligators. Trained people carefully remove reptiles from home pools, golf courses and city park ponds. Both people and reptiles are intact!



Another problem Americans face is the appetites of reptiles. They hardly touch people, but alligators like dogs, cats, sheep, goats and other small household items. Local residents know this very well, so they never take their pets for walks to rivers and lakes. And predators don’t go far from bodies of water!



Alligator Alley is one of Florida's landmarks. This is the name given to a 170-kilometer-long section of the route that runs through swamps. Almost all the stops and traffic jams here are caused by the fact that another reptile has come out to bask on the asphalt.

It turns out that the scaly apocalypse in the USA is surprisingly mundane and boring. Humans and reptilians were able to draw a clear boundary in their relationships, which they crossed only by accident or out of stupidity. What a pity that we cannot also coexist peacefully with other large predators!