Alligator at BCV?

[tooncanator]

Somebody let me in on the joke. I'm a new DVC member, just
joined. Me and my daughter will be taking our 1st trip in may.
If she hears about Alligators I may be going alone :-].

 

[dznymom1]

Sorry, no joke! I was there last weekend and said Goodbye to the Gator as we were leaving the resort! I did hear a rumor that they will try to trap and remove him soon.

 

[tooncanator]

Is it aggressive?

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Is it aggressive?

Gators by their very nature can be very aggressive, however, unless you bother it it probably won't bother you.

 

[SamSam]

Yes, Mr. Gator is definitely there......along with some rather large turtles. He was laying in the water, along with 4 or 5 turtles, under the bridge from BCV going to the parking lot. He really appeared to be waiting for people to throw him tidbits. I didn't see anyone feeding him or the turtles, but that was what it looked like he was expecting. I imagine that if he's a problem that Disney will try to relocate him to a more remote location.

 

[slc224]

My DW witnessed an alligator capture at OKW in Sep '94 when she was up nursing our baby at 4:00am. We thought we saw something in the pond the evening before (from our balcony) but did not think much about it. Sure enough, it was an allligator!

 

[wdwbill]

Greetings

We saw the alligator from our balcony (in late Oct) catch a large turtle. There was a ten minute stand off with the alligator holding the turtle (by it's shell) in it's mouth. Finally the alligator opened his month and the turtle escaped!

I have it all on video (LOL).

 

[Regina]

Yep, the gator was the first thing that we saw when we stepped out on our balcony last month. We never did see him again.

When we took the BCV model tour, the topic came up. The CM said that they're very territorial and, if they relocated this one, another one would just take it's place.

From what I could see, it looked as if that area is fenced off. It didn't appear that the gator can access any of the areas where it would encounter guests.

 

[vernon]

Pretty much any open body of water in Florida has a decent chance there will be a gator in it, WDW is no different from the rest of Fl in that respect. I also saw the OKW gator in 94, have seen the larger one at SOG quite a few times and several in the lakes on the golf courses. The canals that criscross WDW property allow them access to a lot of territory.
Disney will trap and remove any large or threatening gators that pose a danger, but that doesn't mean anyone should assume a gator they see should be viewed as "safe" or approachable.

You get a reasonable amount of smaller gators because the canals have grilled gates at various points. This limits the access of larger gators, but does allow the small ones to swim through. As the major preditor of medium sized gators is BIG GATORS, this means the lakes and canals of WDW are a relatively safe area for them to live and to grow bigger.

 

[cgcw]

My DS8 would love to see a real gator in a natural (non-zoo) environment. And, DH would probably be the first one jumping up and down with excitement. We can only hope to spot it next month.

 

[kel3420]

I told my kids about the alligator last night and two out of three were excited. My five year old asked me if we still going swimming in Florida next week, and when I answered her yes, she asked if the alligator would bite her. We then had a long discussion about where it was located and that we only swim in the pools, where there are no alligators. Once she understood, she then became excited to see it also. Sometimes we forget how these little ones process new info, lol.

Hopefully they won't move it before we get there.

 

[Belle and Rella's Dad]

We were there in late Sept and early Oct, and said goodbye to the gator everytime that we traveled to the bus stop. It wasn't aggresive at all, it just stayed in the shadows of the canal. My girls thought it was awesome to see, even though every 5 to 10 minutes they would get out of the pool to make sure it was still in the canal. They did not want to share their swimming space with the gator.

 

[KNWVIKING]

We left BCV on the 9th, the 'gator- nicknamed "Suzy" by the CM's- was alive & well,as were the 5 snapper turtles. My DW fed them left over ham & swiss sandwiches from our drive down. One CM told us the gator gets fed regularly by WDW. Keeping it fed will keep it from being aggressive.

 

[LR_BCV]

We saw Suzy every single day of our stay. She was usually just hanging in front of the overpass in the canal. The turtles seemed to swim right past her face, as if teasing her. The kids loved it.

 

[jx3smom]

We said goodbye to Suzy on Nov. 9 and really enjoyed seeing her. We counted six turtles at one time. One swam right up to Suzy's face. I never saw the gator out of water and she just sort of sat there waiting for food. We all thought it was really cool to see one in a non zoo setting.

 

[CrayzeeDiz]

We saw this Gator on our trip in early October. BCV management informed me that the water way is well stocked with fish and that the Gator is no problem. They said they couldnt remove it under Florida law until it was at least 4 feet long. This is one lucky Gator.

 

[Terry S]

There is acutally 2 alligators. One is around 4 feet long, he or she stays by the canel in the front of the villas either by the bus stop or under the road. There is also a bigger one around 5 or 6 feet that stays by the back of the villas on the Epcot side. There really is nothing that stops them from coming up the side of the bank except fear. We acutally caught the one in the back sunning himself on the bank, but as soon as we walked up he ran back into the water. He made me nervous at first, but after awhile we grew to look forward to him, we would go over to the bridge and tap on the railing and he would come out.

If anyone has disk space I have a really good digital pic I can send so that it can be posted. We were there last year in October and I only got a picture of his head. This year he surfaced and we got a picture of this whole body.

 

[Goofy Fan]

CRIKEY!

 

[JonHM]

to the post saying that keeping it fed keeps it from getting aggressive, that is actually the opposite of everything that I have ever been taught about gators.
I have some bizzare fascination with gators, so I've actually watched quite a few documentaries and read up on them a bit. I've always heard that they are naturally wary of humans and tend to stay away, but that they only become dangerous once humans begin feeding them. They start coming closer and closer and eventually feel comfortable enough around humans that they grow aggressive. That is why in many parts of FL (ALL over Sanibel Island, for example) there are signs warning people NOT to feed the gators because it makes them more aggressive.
So please, DVC members, tempting though it may be, please do NOT feed the gators!

 

[Terry S]

Those gators are very well fed. People were throwing food from their balcony. The construction workers were also throwing food to him.