Gators or snakes: Ever been seen at Grand Floridian??

We did see a gator in the water last year while waiting at the boat dock at the GF. Have not seen a snake.
 
It is Florida...there are snakes.

It is Florida and there is water around...there are Gators.
 
WDW is in the middle of a huge swamp. Of course there are snakes and gators all over the place. There is a reason why they employ as many Animal Control officers as they do. I was told by a CM at POR, as we watched one juvenile gator in the River, that they monitor the gators and remove them if they are too close to guest areas and/or have reached a certain size. I've seen them on several occasions in the River at MK. Maybe that's one of the reasons that they stopped the canoe rides. :confused3

Snakes are ubiquitous. We've seen them at just about every resort we've ever stayed at. Keep your distance and you'll be fine.


:rolleyes1sticks finger in ears and sticks tongue out I can't hear you!!!!
 
While at the WL. Our usual resort.... We head on down to the rental boat pier to catch the EWP and the CM was there docking some of the power boats and while talking to him, he said watch this..... and scanned the far bank with his boat light and said all those eyes reflecting are......gators, Got our attention, being a hunter, fisherman and trapper from the north I could see what he meant .... Beware the swamps!
 


Back when SOG was The Disney Inn we saw a large gator laying on the sidewalk by the golf course. We had planned to walk from the Inn to the Poly but decided we would ride the bus from then on!! I have also seen alot of snakes. I even chased one out of SAB. :thumbsup2
 
We saw several alligators on the boat from Wilderness Lodge to MK. Our family has fun looking for wild life. So far, we have seen lizards, alligators, snakes, deer, rabbits (both in MK and Epcot!) but the best we're the turkeys underneath the monorail tracks. :)
 
I heard there was a gator in the magic kingdo a few years back where Tom Sayers is also near pop in the lake. But I did find a cockroach in the shower at pop also

Yes there was, it was a small one and he was hanging out under the walkway and people were trying to feed him. But that was about 2-3 years ago. Once a gator gets a certain length Disney moves them off property.
We have lived in Florida for a long while and here is a simple rule, if its a body of water then there is a 99% chance a gator is in it.
 


As a FL resident I am saying there are no snakes and gators in FL.

That is what I am convincing myself so I don't have to move... Lol
 
While my mom and I were taking the monorail to Magic Kingdom from the Poly one morning we saw a cottonmouth moccasin slither across one of the grounds at the GF. I thought it was a stick. :woohoo:
 
I have seen alligators and snakes at wdw and that is saying something since I am legally blind. We arrived and was walking from shades of green to ressies at grand f when we saw the first one, right in the waters going towards the poly from shades of green, so if there I will assume they are at the grand also since you can walk to it from shades of green. Two days later just a little further from the first one we saw, closer to the poly we saw another one. That night we saw two snakes walking back to shades from the poly, again very close to grand f so snakes would be there also. On our second to last day we saw another alligator again on shades of green property. For anyone who does not know where shades of green is it is across the street from poly, between two golf courses. We also saw a snake in Hollywood studios, I was walking with dd out of the bathroom near rocking roller coaster when two women started screaming, the cast members came running, my dd told me not to move, I guess I was inches from stepping on a snake, the janitor came by in like 15 seconds, scooped it up with a broom and a dustpan and away the snake went. I did here a CM state that it will go behind the seens where it can kept the mice in check. I know in Disneyland there is a mice problem, as a matter of fact, it has been told that there are more than 100 cats running free in Disneyland to keep the mice in check. I know my service dog has found a number of those cats. I am glad my service dog was taking a water break with my ex husband when we ran into the snake, I think it would have spooked him more than me.
 
I have never seen a gator at any of the resorts I have stayed at or at WDW in general but everytime I have been I have seen snakes. They aren't huge python type things just small to medium sized snakes trying to get on with their lives. At SSR last year there was a little snake living somewhere near our room in Congress Park, we saw it almost every morning at the same patch of grass sunning itself but it was scared and slithered away when it heard anyone coming (probably due to people chasing it, poor wee thing!) We did see it one afternoon with it's lunch, one of the little lizards that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time! We also saw it being chased away by some squirrels one morning. :laughing:
 
Gators are cool, as is all wildlife.....EXCEPT snakes.

Serious question.....are there a lot of poisonous ones in the area? I can "sort of" deal with snakes if they're of the small variety and I know that they are not poisonous. No poisonous snakes where I live.

What about spiders? Any poisonous ones down there?
 
Oooh! We also saw what CM's called a 'water rat' in the MK about 10 years ago. It was in the water under the bridge to Cinderella's Castle. It was pretty large, about the size of a large rabbit and was swimming through the water and coming up the banks to happily pick up popcorn and chips that people were throwing to it. I know people tend to think badly of rats ( I don't, they are awesome) but this thing was super duper cute and I think he felt like a bit of a celebrity with all the attention he got! :)
 
Gators are cool, as is all wildlife.....EXCEPT snakes.

Serious question.....are there a lot of poisonous ones in the area? I can "sort of" deal with snakes if they're of the small variety and I know that they are not poisonous. No poisonous snakes where I live.

What about spiders? Any poisonous ones down there?

Some of those cute little snakes that smallblackstars was gushing over could easily have been a coral snake, water moccasin, or copperhead- all venomous. Don't let the size fool you. A baby rattlesnake can inflict just as deadly a bite as an adult.

And yes, poisonous spiders are native, including black widows and brown recluses.

Here's a link you may find useful: http://www.poisoncentertampa.org/venomous-critters.aspx
 
This snake went shopping at Epcot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KXbL6jEqMc

Gators:

In the Seven Seas Lagoon near the Grand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZEEmPLdzr4

Shades of Green: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTGlE56v6hE

Near Splash Mt. :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ZqrnJkQuQ

Near Caribbean Beach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ27lMiww3c

These are shared not to freak anyone, don't watch them if you are that freaked, but I always find these threads interesting that people truly do not realize that in Florida, even Disney World, snakes and gators are a given.

Sadly people feed them which is really stupid, as it is dangerous. They begin to associate humans with easy food and eventually it means the death of the gator.

Never heard of anyone being hurt or bothered by the gators, there was a child bitten by water moccasin in the shrubs of a Disney resort.

Lesson, stay on the walkways and out of the shrubs and grassy areas and away from bodies of water. The child lost his toy and reached into the shrubs to get the toy and got bit on the hand.

As to poisonous snakes, as someone asked, the most common would be the water moccasin and the pigmy rattler.

The cutest Gators are at POFQ: http://disneyphotoblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/pofq.jpg
 
I think it's fair to say yes there are snakes and gators about but they won't have any impact on your trip other than being something fun to observe (if you like wildlife), a good photo opportunity and a reminder that you are in Florida :D If you see any just be calm and avoid them and if you get a bit of a shock seeing one don't panic (too much) just walk away and have a giggle about the gator/snake that made you jump! :goodvibes
 
There are also a LOT of non-poisonous snakes in Florida, and the poisonous ones? Mainly want to be left alone. Don't pester them, put your hand in their faces, threaten them etc. and you can just watch the wildlife.

I've nearly stepped on a cottonmouth before - when a large predator approaches, they just go perfectly still and hope you mistake them for a fallen branch. But for that tatic, instead of slithering away, they're called aggressive by some people. In reality, it means you have to watch, because if you step on one, of course they're going to react. Still, it also means you can get right up on one and check it out with no fear.

Water moccasins, generally are also pretty shy. I've had some big old 6 footers who were like "yeah, what you gonna do about it?" when I crossed paths with them, unlike the little ones who are more "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! HUMAN!" but we just eyeballed each other and went on our ways. (I can't count the moccasins I've run across in my lifetime. My family has that rarest of rare things in SW Louisiana - a crystal clear, spring fed pond. No one ever goes back there, so it is FULL of moccasins. Before they clear cut the land around it, it was also huckleberry central. Huckleberries are worth eyeballing a few moccasins. . .)

Rattlers will defend themselves much more readily if they feel threatened, but even then, if you aren't trying to walk on them, or shoot them, or run them down with a hoe or something, they recognize you are the bigger predator and that they, in this instance, would be prey, so if you don't act crazy, they're just like "oh, thanks for not killing me" and they slither on their way. Corals can be a little cranky (I think it's their size - they are itsy little snakes!) but unless you stick your hand in a load of pine straw or something similar, you can't miss them. And remember "red against yellow can kill a fellow, red against black is a friend of jack." The red against black snakes are rather docile little non-poisonous snakes. The red against yellow are coral. Give them a little room and they'll be glad to leave you alone!

In addition, a lot of the snakes you see are non-poisonous. King snakes and corn snakes, for example, are all so docile in the presence of humans that you can scoop one up from the outdoors and set it up in a terrarium! (Not that I would, personally.) Others, not so much - they may not be poisonous, but they have a little self-respect. Racers, coachwhips, rat snakes and hog nosed come to mind. Still, if you are extremely careful (they will run if spooked unless cornered so that they can't, then they will get all panicked and bite - so don't corner one or get all up in its grill - just give it room to slither off in a terrified manner if it spots you and starts getting worried about what you're cooking for supper and you're fine), you can observe these snakes as well.

All native snakes, whether non-poisonous or poisonous, are important to the ecosystem of Florida and serve an important function. They are not looking for humans, they do not want to bother us. Leave them alone, they'll leave you alone!

Oh, and the kicker? I used to have a phobia of snakes. The older I get and the more I learn about the conservation of land, the more I appreciate all wildlife, including snakes.
 

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