If you're outside much you need worry about other reptiles too. Rattlers, copperheads and cotton mouths.
That was so long ago they should be bigger than 5 ft. Bet someones pet got too big but they too tenderhearted to kill.

The way I understood that event some congressman got a wild idea and had 100 baby gators released in Wheeler Refuge without the knowledge or consent of the State Wildlife experts. They had a conniption when they learned it and launched acampaign to recapture them. Found about one half of them.

Yes, this happened in my neck of the woods! Kind of scary - at least I don't have a pond!

Yes, Ted, I do worry about snakes, but since I grew up around the water and in this area, they don't freak me out like they do some people. We now live on 9 acres, about half wooded, so we see quite a few. Our best buddy is a black snake that we think lives under our house at least part of the year and keeps the bad guys at bay. We see 'Buddy' a couple of times a year.

If you want a couple of laughs, go check out the postings on the pond forum. There were a couple of really funny replies over there. I'm still visualizing one of them and laughing out loud.

Phillip, I finally took the time to look at your web page. Quite beautiful & it gives me a few shrub ideas for some areas I'll eventually work on. Want to come to advise me on our property? If you ever run out of things to do, I can keep you busy for a while!

Cheers!
Elaine

I used to go horseback riding quite a bit in the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge near the Huntsville International Airport. I have seen everything from 1-foot baby gators to a 10-foot whopper. Gators are alive and well and breeding in N Alabama :)

Back around 1979 during the latter years of the Carter administration, the feds decided to put gators back into the extreme ranges of their former habitat, which included the Tennessee River. This was to help replenish the dwindling gator population. They released about 25 adult gators and justified this by saying it would help reduce the beaver population. They released a bunch of smaller gators also. The first two or three winters were brutal and several carcasses were found during the next several springs. For example, does anyone remember the big ice storm we had in January 1982, that was the year of the Air Florida crash in D.C. Regardless, the gator population in Wheeler has increased and sitings are infrequent but they are seen. About 5 or 6 years ago a gator was seen in a golf course pond here in Birmingham. He was promptly removed for the safety of the golfers. About the same time a friend in Harpersville had 2 or 3 gators in Coosa river next to her property. Eventhough there were small children on the property, the state would not do anything and warned the property owner not to harm the gators. Mike Bolton who is a sportwriter for the B'ham News took a canoe trip down the Cahaba RIver from Helena to the Alabama RIver near Old Cahaba in Dallas County (Selma). Bolton reported he saw small gators on the banks of the Cahaba from West Blocton-Centerville area down to Selma. Several have been spotted at the lock and dam in Northport-Tuscaloosa and recently one was spotted at Lock 17 in the Warrior River at Jefferson-Tuscaloosa county line. I keep looking for one anytime in the backyard pond garden. Great heavens, I ramble on like my grandmother used to. I am getting old.

About once a year a photographer for the Redstone Rocket newspaper snaps a photo of a 10-foot gator in a test area on Redstone Arsenal. They say there are more than the one gator. This particular gator has a missing tail, so they call him "Stumpy." Theory is that another gator chomped on Stumpy's tail.

Also, the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge office in Decatur has a photo of a gator that was taken near historic Mooresville on the Tennessee River.

Here's an article about sightings all around Decatur. A quote from the article:

Capt. Johnny Johnson of the Wildlife and Fresh Water Fisheries office in Decatur said he receives about 25 alligator sighting calls a year.

"They are here," he said. "There are alligators all over Morgan and Limestone counties."

It sounds like the Feds brought in gators to control the beaver population. Doesn't appear to have worked.

Here is a link that might be useful: See ya later, alligator?

I was at inland lake near oneonta and was in the bait shop(it is a fishing lake mostly) and was surprised to see a picture of what looked to be alarge alligator on the wall. When i asked the proprietor about it he smiled and said that was their local gator and that he was about 10 feet long. As I was about to go kayaking I was a bit nervous but I have done it in the gulf of mexico so what is a well fed lake gator compared to 7 foot bull sharks that have a taste for kayak paddles? No sighting, but interesting indeed.

Safeone, was that at Weiss Lake or another lake? That's the first I've heard about gators around there, but nothing should be a surprise anymore. It would sure make me more watchful about where I put my paddle! And welcome to the forum.
Mlogsdon, I vaguely recall the stories you've related about 'Stumpy' in the Redstone rag. Thanks for the memory (I think). Some things are just better left unknown.

I believe Safeone failed to capitalize the 'I' and meant Inland Lake (name)about 7 miles south of Allgood, near Oneonta in Blount County instead of "an inland lake". It was part of the old Birmingham Industrial Water Works before being absorbed by BWWB. You go north on AL 75 and take a right. Just a little piece out there you cross a railroad track. There used to be a depot there with a sign saying Chapultepec. I don't know about gators at Inland, but there used to be some monster cottonmouths back in the sloughs.

I seen both gators and armadilo here. I think we became Zone 8 and nobody told us :)

Jay, that's funny, but you could be right. We haven't had any real snow and ice here in north Bama in 8-10 years. That last 'good one' was in '97 I believe, but nothing like what I remember as a kid.