BIG. CRITTERS. IN. FLORIDA!!!! (and you think YOU have pest problems!)

[dlavery]

I was recently thinking about this thread, and just sitting there calmly musing on the possibilities of beautiful Gulf coast sunsets, warm weather, life on the beach, etc. etc. etc. Until a friend at Kennedy Space Center sent me this image:


It seems that wildlife activity is picking up around KSC. It is normal for gators to be on the move this time of year, looking for a nice watering hole to settle in to. However, walking into your shop in the morning and finding this guy looking back at you is NOT what I would call normal! It seems that someone forgot to close all the doors to the high voltage shop the evening before, and "Bubba" wandered in during the night. The guy that found him was only a few feet away when he realized what was on the floor (the lights were off except in the office area). Yikes!

I guess I will never complain about the rats in the streets in D.C. again!

-dave

[Greg Marra]

I think that alligator is battery powered. Look at its eyes!

[Tytus Gerrish]

here at work i see at least 4 aligators a day. at one time the aligators in florida outnumbered people.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by dlavery

I was recently thinking about this thread, and just sitting there calmly musing on the possibilities of beautiful Gulf coast sunsets, warm weather, life on the beach, etc. etc. etc. Until a friend at Kennedy Space Center sent me this image:


It seems that wildlife activity is picking up around KSC. It is normal for gators to be on the move this time of year, looking for a nice watering hole to settle in to. However, walking into your shop in the morning and finding this guy looking back at you is NOT what I would call normal! It seems that someone forgot to close all the doors to the high voltage shop the evening before, and "Bubba" wandered in during the night. The guy that found him was only a few feet away when he realized what was on the floor (the lights were off except in the office area). Yikes!

I guess I will never complain about the rats in the streets in D.C. again!

-dave

The industrial sized insects are enough to make me want to stay out of Florida (at least to visit but not likely to live there).

[Jaine Perotti]

hmmm... what a comforting sight. I am moving down to Florida next year for college.
And I thought bear and moose were bad up here in Connecticut/New Hampshire...

I remember the first time I ever saw an alligator in the wild, I was in Everglades National Park (I must have been about 10 or 11 years old). They scared the --- out of me, especially because my stepmom (who is an adventurous person), decided it would be fun to try to touch one. She got about four feet away from this 14 foot long alligator when I started screaming because I was afraid that it would attack her. I also remember vowing that I would never move to Florida because of the alligators. Isn't it funny how your perspective changes over time?

I am sure I will have lots of fun with the alligators living in Osceola Lake on the University of Miami campus next year.

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

The industrial sized insects are enough to make me want to stay out of Florida (at least to visit but not likely to live there).

They're not that big...

*pulls out 5 foot diameter fly swatter and smacks the giant insect sitting in chair next to him*

I'll be back, I've gotta clean up this mess...

[Cappeh]

Oh, Jaine. xD

Alligators are nothing. In India, they have ELEPHANTS. :/

[Michelle Celio]

Oh, come on..that's not even that big. I've petted bigger.

[nehalita]

i see them all the time. (that would be the road...)

[VEN]

it looks like it poo'ed on the floor someone i know keeps a gecko in his pocket...kinda weird...im surprised it hasn't run away....

[Andy A.]

At least hitting an Alligator with your car doesn't come with a high probability of getting killed your self.

When a car hits a Moose at 60 miles an hour, the car, moose and human all loose.

Besides that, a marauding moose in town stays in town till it decides to leave. There just is no shooing them away. It happened not to long ago In Hanover. A moose wandered into town. The police kept people away from it and waited till it wandered back out. There was no use in trying to tranquilize it, since you then need a flat bed and fork lift to move it! Putting it down would be problematic, since the police didn't have a rifle large enough to ensure a clean kill and any rifle big enough to kill a moose is to dangerous to use in a town.

Basically, Moose have free run of New England. And I think they know it.

-Andy A.

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by BurningQuestion

hmmm... what a comforting sight. I am moving down to Florida next year for college.
And I thought bear and moose were bad up here in Connecticut/New Hampshire...

I am sure I will have lots of fun with the alligators living in Osceola Lake on the University of Miami campus next year.

Being next to a body of water in Florida you'll find lots of "visitors"!

My grandfather's house borders two canals in Cape Coral and I've seen so many different things crawling or scurrying around there it was unbelievable. The small lizards aren't bad and are fun to play with but watch out for the palmettos and other water bugs. I'd rather deal with the deer in my backyard every morning. I've never seen any alligators in the canals there although I have seen them on the sides of the road like in Nahalita's pic.

And be careful when walking through the grass barefoot.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Andy A.

At least hitting an Alligator with your car doesn't come with a high probability of getting killed your self.

When a car hits a Moose at 60 miles an hour, the car, moose and human all loose.

Besides that, a marauding moose in town stays in town till it decides to leave. There just is no shooing them away. It happened not to long ago In Hanover. A moose wandered into town. The police kept people away from it and waited till it wandered back out. There was no use in trying to tranquilize it, since you then need a flat bed and fork lift to move it! Putting it down would be problematic, since the police didn't have a rifle large enough to ensure a clean kill and any rifle big enough to kill a moose is to dangerous to use in a town.

Basically, Moose have free run of New England. And I think they know it.

-Andy A.

All I ever needed to learn about the North East/Alaska I learned from Northern Exposure.

[team222badbrad]

Dave, now I just want to know what pictures your friends on Mars have sent back of critters...

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by nehalita

i see them all the time. (that would be the road...)

2 little alligators sitting by the road
1 named Curley
1 named Moe
- Where is Larry? -
Curley asks
-Skinny dipping -
Moe just laughs