A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall The Critter Corner Lost alligator

Took a wrong turn in Florida, swam a few thousand miles...

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2008/12/30/Alligator_confronts_campers_291082.html

WOW How strange that would be to see an alligator from your veranda,,

I will stick with cows.......

"Candy-gram!"

Guess the Alligator was having a little down under vacation......that's really odd, I wonder if it escaped from a zoo somewhere there.

Heck they run loose like that in florida....
Everglades are their mecca.

Right thorn?

Yeppers! They are found all along the Gulf Coast. I used to see them at my grandmothers house in southern Louisiana while fishing when I was a boy.

One theory I heard was that it may be an offspring of a gator that was stolen from a zoo in NSW a few years ago. NSW is too far south for those critters; it might be like finding one in Washington DC or something like that. Our own crocodiles all stay up in the top part of Australia, where it's warmer. You know, I'm glad they stay up there. I used to live up there, but I don't miss swimming with them! At least down here we only have the sharks to contend with.

Memosa, I think your dad may have been a wise man!

we had them in the bayou when i was growing up, and the bayou still has them. fried gator is good, but only if he's a nuisance. otherwise, you get in trouble

last one i know of, that was turned into stew, was about 7 feet and tried to eat my niece and her dog. he wasn't happy when she and the dog was pulled up onto the boat dock, he couldn't climb the steps :wink:

we called him weekly wally after the bayou (weekly bayou) and discovered that he was a she as they were cleaning him (her) for the stew pot. 60+ eggs. that would have been a real nuisance

and did you know, even the little guys can take your finger off?

that's been a few years now. i don't live there anymore, but go regularly. we have gators here though. so it is a lot like home. just no bayou.

I have farm raised gator tail in my freezer still.

farm raised gator is a staple on most menus here. but i don't like it so much. they don't k now how to cook it.

Neither do I much. That is partly why it is still in my freezer.
I actually have a bunch of recipes but none that really thrilled me. And I have cooked some of it, deep fried nugget style. The family all liked it.

If you can get it ground up, it makes wonderful burgers, tacos, stews, chili....anything. if the gater gets too big the meat can be tough. It a lot like a hog in that respect. but, ground it up and it's wonderful no matter what! mmmm....mmm so fluffy and tender!

never had ground 'gator cricket. i'll have to remember that!

You're from Texas, Cricket. Shouldn't you be eating Rattler? Me mother was from Texas and she ate Rattler.

I I also have 3 or 4 rattlers in my freezer and a live one in a terrarium awaiting relocating.

Your mean you butcher snakes?

oh yuck...........

Wild meat turns my stomach over....
Beefer here. or chicken or fish.

I've never even seen a rattler, thorn! I'd love to, though.
hubby goes on those state drawn game hunts. he's been aligator hunting about 3 times. last time he came back with a 10 footer. we had half made into stakes and half ground. that's when I learned an old big gater is too tough to do anything with but ground meat. I tried every way I knew how to cook that steak meat???
I've never even eaten rattler! I was tricked into eating possum once. yuck. makes me sick to even think about it. (but it was good) YUK!

We only kill the ones that are invading our space and endangering our people and animals. And even then we do relocate most to wilder places away from populated areas. The ones who become difficult to capture are killed. And if they were endangering your beef or poultry or grandbaby, you probably would too. It is fun to have a snake and steak BBQ when we have visitors. Or offer it along with a big community fish fry. No waste there.

I have never had possum, Cricket. I don't think I would go out of my way to either.I don't even waste my time eating the rattlers. Too much work for too little reward.

Well, I never would have eaten it if I knew what it was. a possum is basically a rat! it disgust me to think about it now.

yea, I guess skinning a snake just for the wee bit of meat would be a pain. I'd still like to try rattler though.

The very first time I had seen a 'possum, I thought I was seeing a huge rat. But they are marsupials and raise their babies in pouches. But I don't want to eat a kangaroo much either. I actually prefer my beef and chicken, like Barb (Dodge).

I WON'T eat a possum......but I've eaten raccoon.

We have LOTS of Rattlers around Middle Tennessee. I see one or two a year, but they tend to leave people alone. It's like they are saying, "OH! Hey! How ya doin'? Seen any rats or mice?"

Yes I agree. The snakes prefer to stay away from us humans. But they also love our water sources and the other critters coming to our water. I have the neighbors drop off all of the harmless snakes in my yard. They can make other people nervous but they are welcome here. Fewer pesty critters for me to deal with.

SNakes, even poisonous ones, don't bother me at all.

Its your choice.

Thorn, you would do well over here. I think we have more venomous snakes than any other country. I've had a few very close calls, including a king brown snake that lunged at my bare foot as I was jumping backwards. It missed by about an inch. Another time I picked up a death adder that I thought was dead, but it was alive. Do you reckon I dropped that one like a hot potato?