Apply Now!

It was the morning of May 16th. I was sitting in a comfy chair at my favorite coffee shop ***rb*cks reading the previous week's Weekender when I read the headline, "Apply for alligator-hunting permits beginning May 4". I thought to myself, Why haven't I heard of this before? Why hasn't anyone told me this was going on? I read further. "The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will begin accepting applications on May 4 (May 4th! That's already gone by!)..for a chance to obtain highly coveted permits to participate in the statewide alligator harvest. Applications submitted will be entered in a random drawing to assign permits." I kept reading. "Applications will be accepted from 10 a.m. May 4 through 11:59 p.m.  May 17 (May 17th?! Well that's TOMORROW!)". I jumped out of my chair, ran out of the coffee shop and drove home to my laptop to apply!

I was thrilled to learn that a person can submit one no-cost application, which provides the option of prioritizing up to five hunt areas and period choices and that all those seeking a harvest permit must be 18 years old by Aug 15 (Check!). So I filled out an application for my boyfriend Mike, my associate chiropractor Dr. Fred (who really wants to "choot a gator!" and myself. Everyone else I frantically called and texted politely said, "No thanks.". The five hunt areas I chose were Lake Pierce, Lake Marian, Kissimmee River (Pool E), Lake Hatchineha, and Kissimmee River (Pool A). My period choice was 1 of course! I wanted to be one of the first ones out there to cherry pick my two gators. I printed out a copy of my application and displayed it proudly on the fridge like a trophy. Already feeling like I had won the gator lottery. 

 Now a permit allows the harvest of two alligators on a designated area. And there are more than 6,000 alligator harvest permits available each year. This is because while everybody in Florida is tolerant of fence lizards, geckos, anoles and other small lizards running, climbing, and clinging on their property, most people are intolerant of alligators exhibiting similar behaviors.

Thus, the statewide alligator harvest is an important component of alligator management in Florida. It has always appeared to me that anybody lucky enough to have a personal or neighborhood wild alligator ought to be so gratified that she would gladly put up with inconveniences in order to perpetuate the gator's happy state. This could possibly be due to the fact that alligators and I go way back. In fact, before I was even born my mother Eileen kept a baby caiman as a pet.

And when I was little I would play for hours with my rubber alligator bath toy outside in the roadside streams and were the culverts took the water under the road and dumped it into a pool.

While attending chiropractic school, some of my early adventures included hiking La Chua Trail and I have observed many times alligators lying in passive stacks on mud bars in Alachua Sink.

 

or drifting balefully about in ambush at The Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, FL.

An alligator is not likely to meet a violent end if it can avoid hunters. Mature alligators have almost no natural enemy. If people have anything approaching a valid complaint against alligators it is of their willingness to live in urban and suburban lakes and ponds. They even show up on highways or in yards or swimming pools of suburban homes. Alligators have a strong sense of locale. Once relocated, they will often return to the very place they were removed from. They also relocate to avoid drought, which draws unnaturally heavy numbers of alligators to deeper water and stimulates competition among them.

 The drought conditions in Florida this year didn't help any!

 In addition alligators also have unmannerly eating habits. They eat almost any kind of animal food available and for this reason it is against the law for the public to feed alligators...ANYTHING! Even marshmallows, which they are especially fond of! The problem is that if alligators fall into the custom of watching out for edibles thrown down by people on banks and boardwalks it makes you wonder why an alligator might not interpret the odd child falling into the water as some offering thrown down! The tendency of even the tiniest alligator to grab hold of an edible object too big to swallow and then spin in the water till a piece is torn away is reason enough to go out and harvest a couple gators. I want to help keep the population from getting out of control, to protect the children...and the PUPPIES! I sure hope my application is chosen!!!