The saying goes “Every body of fresh water in Florida has a gator in it.”
In reality it’s not quite that simple, although if you want to play it super safe, by all means go by that saying.
Every body of fresh water could potentially have a gator in it. However, many bodies of water go for long stretches of time without ever seeing one, while others will have dozens on a daily basis.
I have a moderately large lake behind my house. I’ve lived at my house for 9 years now, and in that time span I’ve seen a grand total of 4 gators. With the most recent one being 6 years ago. Nonetheless I always keep my dog on a leash and away from the edge of the water just to be safe.
Florida has a multitude of freshwater springs which I love to visit and swim in. I have actually swum in the springs literally hundreds of times in my life. The water in the springs is crystal clear and they all have designated areas where you can and cannot swim. I have yet to see a gator once in a designated swim area in any spring I’ve been in. That’s not to say they can’t go in there and I’ve heard on rare occasions where they have been spotted, but it’s not a frequent issue and they tend to stay far away from crowded swim areas like the springs.
There are also lakes that have swim areas and sometimes less clear water. If they’re guarded, open and well populated you probably won’t deal with gators there, either. Although sometimes there’s issues with bacteria during summer months if the water gets too warm (unlike the springs which are always 68-72 degrees year round).
But there are also areas that are hot spots for gators where they are as thick as flies. Paynes Prairie, Apopka Drive, Lake Jessup, Myaka River, Shark Valley. But no one swims in those areas out of common sense.
It sounds like where this happened was one of those hot spots where gators congregated heavily. It’s sad that this woman died but it sounds like she decided to go in the water in this one place that most people knew very well not to swim.
Contrary to popular belief, gators do not actively hunt or seek out to attack full sized humans. Australian salt crocodiles might but American alligators don’t. I’ve walked within 5 feet of full sized gators at Shark Valley in the Everglades and they honestly couldn’t care less.
The only times alligators might attack a grown human is if it’s a mother protecting its nest, if you intentionally agitate or provoke one, or if you literally stumble across one and startle it. I’m not sure what happened here, but alligator attacks are extremely, extremely rare.
Don’t feed them, don’t provoke them, don’t swim in a well-known “hot spots”, and keep your pets and small children away from the edges of water and you’ll be fine. Just respect them and give them their space.
= new reply since forum marked as read