They're here....

Wrote several months ago about the steadily increasing number of sightings of alligators as they continue to spread into their former range.  My field methods class was doing fish community work in a local stream yesterday, and came across this...

That's an alligator track, and not a small one.  The hind foot measures about 11.5" to the tip of the longest digit.  With a little regression and some literature work, we're estimating a total length of 9-10 feet.  The stream is not a big one, some thirty feet across, averaging 1-3 feet in depth.  But there are some deep holes, and it supports (supported?) good populations of gar and bowfin.  Lots of beaver and raccoon in the area as well.  A crocodilian could do worse.

I've been working this stream for 18 years, and this is the first gator sign I've seen.  It won't be the last.  Alligators, in my view, pose of much more significant threat than do sharks, and statistics seem to bear that out.  Let's be careful out there, guys.