• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Wildlife reserve promises thousands of alligators will not escape and reclaim Florida

F

Forkball

Member
CF2J7rX.jpg


Uh huh...

It’s not just humans bracing for Hurricane Irma.

More than 2,000 alligators are hunkering down at the Gatorland wildlife reserve in Orlando, Florida, as park officials assure tourists and locals not to worry ― these gators aren’t going anywhere.

“This isn’t our first rodeo,” park director Mike Hileman told HuffPost on Saturday as his employees prepared to close the 110-acre theme park, located roughly 13 miles outside of Walt Disney World.

“We have a detailed hurricane procedure in place,” he assured. “We have double fences, a large perimeter fence that goes around the entire property.”

The assurance came just weeks after Hurricane Harvey struck southeastern Texas, with its powerful floodwaters threatening the release of hundreds of gators from Gator Country, an animal sanctuary in Beaumont. There, water nearly flooded over fences surrounding their reptiles, threatening their escape.

At Gatorland, where the largest gators are 14-feet long, Hileman insisted that even if one of their eight-feet-tall fences gets destroyed or blown away, “they are still not getting off of this property.”

That’s even with most of the gators preparing to ride out the storm in their outside pools. Many of the park’s other residents ― including panthers, bobcats, goats, birds, raccoons and snakes ― had to be moved inside, he said.

Videos taken inside the park on Saturday showed Gatorland employees carrying pythons around their shoulders and legs as they moved the reptiles to secure facilities. Another video showed what appeared to be dozens of baby gators being moved into a fresh pool of water.

Then there was Bullet, one of the park’s smaller gators that was born with just three legs. That little guy was filmed relocating alongside employee Savannah Boan.

“Come on, let’s go for a walk!” she cheerfully called to him as he shuffled at her feet.

The moves came as South Florida braces for maximum sustained winds of 125 mph. As of Saturday evening, Central Florida is expected to see major flooding from rain as well as structural damage to buildings due to high winds, according to the National Weather Service.

Hileman, however, assured that they’re ready for anything.

In addition to the fences surrounding the property, the grounds are equipped with a water pumping system, which would allow employees to lower the water levels if it gets too high. A five-person team will also stay on the property throughout the storm, allowing them to monitor its fences should they fall or get destroyed, he said.

“Once the winds are around 30-35 mph, they’ll go out to check perimeter fences,” Hileman said.

In a video posted to Facebook Friday evening, the park’s president and CEO Mark McHugh posed with several gators along a packed shoreline where he repeated the assurance: “None of our animals are getting out.”

“We’ve been fighting big hurricanes and nasty storms since 1949,” he said, referencing the date the park first opened. “If you see an alligator floating down the street right by your house, it ain’t ours. Don’t call us. Call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Department.”
Click to expand...
The link includes a video of an employee laughing at the notion that alligators will escape.
 
M

Madness

Member
Alligatorjandro said:
Let them mans run free
Click to expand...

Floridians man. They weren't content with chicken and beef and pork. Now many eat alligator just because they can. There are gator hunts in florida for the small dicked americans who like killing apex predators with high poweres rifles getting their jollies off.

But the amount of burmese pythons that idiots have brought as pets and releases have killed a lot of gators. You don't want the pythons getting out other they'll be killing florida panthers,girls and boys,pets so much more.
 
S

Steel

Banned
Madness said:
Floridians man. They weren't content with chicken and beef and pork. Now many eat alligator just because they can. There are gator hunts in florida for the small dicked americans who like killing apex predators with high poweres rifles getting their jollies off.

But the amount of burmese pythons that idiots have brought as pets and releases have killed a lot of gators. You don't want the pythons getting out other they'll be killing florida panthers,girls and boys,pets so much more.
Click to expand...

Gator meat does taste pretty good though.
 
U

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
Aren't there like a bajillion gators across Florida anyway? Why do these ones matter?
 
B

bootsthecat

Banned
It was surprising to read that only 4 folks have been killed by alligators since 2010 in Florida considering there are an estimated 1 million plus in the state. Where all all dem war gators at?
 
nillapuddin

nillapuddin

Member
{ does entire interview, "everything will be fine" but at the very last second }

* wink *


The gators have the ceo daughter, it's all a set up, they are paying the managers double what the company would, this is a classic movie like opportunity. Someone is getting crossed, and those gators are absolutely getting out.
 
C

Coldnoodle

Member
A five-person team will also stay on the property throughout the storm, allowing them to monitor its fences should they fall or get destroyed, he said.

“Once the winds are around 30-35 mph, they’ll go out to check perimeter fences,” Hileman said.
Click to expand...

At Gatorland, where the largest gators are 14-feet long, Hileman insisted that even if one of their eight-feet-tall fences gets destroyed or blown away, “they are still not getting off of this property.”
Click to expand...

lupe1.png


“Once the winds are around 30-35 mph, they’ll go out to check perimeter fences,” Hileman said.

Hileman insisted that even if one of their eight-feet-tall fences gets destroyed or blown away, “they are still not getting off of this property.”
Click to expand...

lupe1.png


they’ll go out to check perimeter fences,” Hileman said.

...if one of their eight-feet-tall fences gets destroyed or blown away,

At Gatorland, where the largest gators are 14-feet long
Click to expand...

lupe1.png


damn.png
 
U

UpDownLeftRight

Banned
Madness said:
Floridians man. They weren't content with chicken and beef and pork. Now many eat alligator just because they can. There are gator hunts in florida for the small dicked americans who like killing apex predators with high poweres rifles getting their jollies off.

But the amount of burmese pythons that idiots have brought as pets and releases have killed a lot of gators. You don't want the pythons getting out other they'll be killing florida panthers,girls and boys,pets so much more.
Click to expand...

I'm not even from the US and I've heard no end about how much damage Floridians have done their ecology through Python dumping. I'll never understand it. Every species loses. Just stop buying fuckin massive snakes and then realizing it grows into a fuckin massive snakes Florida.
 
D

Durock

Member
My dad told me a story once about a raccoon hunting trip he went on with some friends a long time ago in Georgia. They came out of the woods one night having waded through part of a pond to their friend's truck waiting for them on the road. When they arrived, he asked them "You didn't just come through that's pond did you? It's full of gators!" "No it isn't" one of them replied.

The man with the truck had a huge spotlight connected to the top of it. So he gets up on the truck, points it towards the pond, and turns it on. The pond lights up with hundreds of glowing eyes staring back at them. Lol

Suffice it to say, they're all lucky they weren't a late night snack.
 
M

Moppeh

Banned
Durock said:
My dad told me a story once about a raccoon hunting trip he went on with some friends a long time ago in Georgia. They came out of the woods one night having waded through part of a pond to their friend's truck waiting for them on the road. When they arrived, he asked them "You didn't just come through that's pond did you? It's full of gators!" "No it isn't" one of them replied.

The man with the truck had a huge spotlight connected to the top of it. So he gets up on the truck, points it towards the pond, and turns it on. The pond lights up with hundreds of glowing eyes staring back at them. Lol

Suffice it to say, they're all lucky they weren't a late night snack.
Click to expand...

Jesus Christ
 
T

TheRed

Member
I don't live that far from Gatorland... But there's probably gators closer in the area behind my house that I'll be more likely to see. Hope flooding isn't too bad
 
D

Deleted member 102362

Unconfirmed Member
Durock said:
My dad told me a story once about a raccoon hunting trip he went on with some friends a long time ago in Georgia. They came out of the woods one night having waded through part of a pond to their friend's truck waiting for them on the road. When they arrived, he asked them "You didn't just come through that's pond did you? It's full of gators!" "No it isn't" one of them replied.

The man with the truck had a huge spotlight connected to the top of it. So he gets up on the truck, points it towards the pond, and turns it on. The pond lights up with hundreds of glowing eyes staring back at them. Lol

Suffice it to say, they're all lucky they weren't a late night snack.
Click to expand...
That's terrifying imagery.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Hurricane Irma Made Worse by Climate Change, Scientists Say
2
72
11K
Steeped in a Sea of Games replied
This history of early Florida sounds like the valley of defilement (Politico)
33
5K
Morrigan Stark replied
  • Locked
G/A/F : Man Finds 9-Foot Alligator in Backyard Swimming Pool
2
61
8K
Kickz replied
  • Locked
Florida Woman fights to keep her potty-trained, clothes wearing pet alligator
2 3
121
19K
Krejlooc replied
How Houston's Unregulated Growth Contributed To Harvey's Flooding Disaster
47
8K
Andrew Korenchkin replied
Top Bottom