Is there a purpose to all the water around disney world at this point?

[Hikergirl]

I'm getting a kick out of this! I know of FL wildlife, etc, etc, but some of you are making it seem like you're living 100 years ago, encountering these animals every day in the suburbs of... Well... EVERYWHERE!! LOL!

I have occasionally seen deer run along Wisonconsin Ave in DC! I wouldn't expect to see that often, and I wouldn't expect most tourists to DC to expect to see deer crossing the street in a major city like DC. :-D

Feels like some are now OVERSTATING their encounters with wildlife in everyday life. Boy, does the pendulum swing on DIS...

I live in a sub division that is surrounded by town land on 2 sides. The town decided to sell a large portion to that land to the Toll Brothers and as you can imagine its becoming subdivision heaven, 1 already built and another being built now. Ever since that I have had a bear in the woods next to my house, a pack of wild dogs or coyotes run through my yard one night. I saw one (pretty sure it was a coyote) in there while I was doing the dishes staring out of my window one day.
I have a deer family that comes to my cherry trees every morning. There is a hawks nest in a tree in my neighbors yard and there is a screech owl close enough to wake me up at night sometimes. There is also something coming onto my front lawn at night that scares my dog, there are days where she won't step foot on the grass.
Wildlife here is very normal here in the suburbs. They were here first

 

[Nancyg56]

Inappropriate. Ok. It was my opinion of some posts that I think are exaggerating this. That's not inappropriate.

Well past one for me to move along!

The thing to do at this point was to acknowledge that you were wrong and that those of us who live in suburbs or ural areas encounter wildlife frequently, have been educated on how to manage this so we do not end up either hut or responsible for having these animals put down, and that we actually knew what we were talking about. Instead you insist that you think that we are exaggerating.

Instead you decide to take you ball and go home.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

The thing to do at this point was to acknowledge that you were wrong and that those of us who live in suburbs or ural areas encounter wildlife frequently, have been educated on how to manage this so we do not end up either hut or responsible for having these animals put down, and that we actually knew what we were talking about. Instead you insist that you think that we are exaggerating.

Instead you decide to take you ball and go home.

No -- I just have nothing else to say!

I've said repeatedly that I KNOW this about suburbs -- grew up in suburbs -- and still think there were exaggerations here. That's AN OPINION. Different from yours. And that's ok!

And then some proceed to tell me AGAIN what I'm already aware of and already acknowledged.

Just nothing left to say!

 

[tcufrog]

If alligators are now appearing in Dallas I'm not sure what WDW can do about the gators.

Alligator captured outside Dallas ISD middle school
Alligator warning goes out to Lake Arlington residents

 

[NYUBwayBaby]

No -- I just have nothing else to say!

I've said repeatedly that I KNOW this about suburbs -- grew up in suburbs -- and still think there were exaggerations here. That's AN OPINION. Different from yours. And that's ok!

And then some proceed to tell me AGAIN what I'm already aware of and already acknowledged.

Just nothing left to say!

I mean, it depends on what suburbs you're talking about. When I lived in a DC suburb we had foxes, deer, and possums. The most dangerous thing was probably hitting a deer with your car. When I lived in a central CA suburb we had a mountain lion in the backyard. It ate smaller cats in the neighborhood and my sister and her friend were once walking and tripped over a deer leg it left behind. We had a bear once at the Target, too, but that was extremely uncommon. Just like the foxes we had in Manhattan. I'm in a southern LA suburb now and I got an email two weeks ago giving us a heads up about a four foot gator in the neighborhood. I highly doubt people are exaggerating. They just have different experience than you do.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I live a few miles from NYC. We have rabbits, groundhogs, wild turkeys and bald eagles living around here. We get deer and coyotes once in a while too.

When I was growing up, all you saw around here were squirrels and birds. As we've developed more and more land, these animals have lost habitat and are adapting to living near humans. They need to live somewhere and short of exterminating every animal except our pets, all we can do is adapt to living with other species too.

Alligators serve an important role in the ecosystem. Like sharks, they scavenge for carrion in the water. They are predators needed to keep the populations of fast reproducing animals in check.

 

[Bluegrrl]

If this hasn't been mentioned yet, I would also like say, sinkholes. There have been situations where families have been killed - entire families - due to sinkholes that develop because of mismanaged homes and builders that are greedy and build on unstable land. You can't put basements here because of the water table. You move water in one direction and it butterfly effects into another area. My fils lake is sinking because of a stupid housing development several miles away.

Several years ago there was a sinkhole in the Orlando area where a man died. He was sleeping, the hole opened so fast that he had no chance to escape.
And if you think theme parks are exempt from these forces of nature, they aren't. Cypress gardens/Legoland has a huge "managed" hole.

You can't get rid of the water, just as you can't fence all gators in. Bull gators have about a two acre territory. That gator wasn't just in one little area, he was roaming everywhere. Plus, he probably had been fed by a tourist at one point. Feeding a gator trips something in them, it makes them not fear people. The fences are to keep people out, that's it. Look at SOG fences: it's to keep people at a safe distance from gators. And the manage gators well - actually one the bellhopds told me that the deer were worse because folks run into them.

To sum up:
Getting rid of water is pointless, impractical, unsightly, and environmentally unsafe.
Getting rid of water would be less safe than keeping water.
Btw: they got rid of 20k because it was leaking in tunnels and subs were too tough to keep up with.
Best way to manage gators? Don't feed them and keep tourists at a safe distance. Educational cards ( like at AKL) would help to.

Sigh- long post, sorry!

 

[IrishNYC]

No the lake was created for recreation and much recreational use was seen in the early days.
South Florida- Miami, Miami Beach and Ft Lauderdale are if anything closer to the Everglades than Orlando and they do a good job of seperating people from gators. When one gets lost, they take the gator back to the Glades. They do not leave it be to wander around people to its heart's delight because it is Florida. They don;t claim its part of the ecosytem - they get rid of it. Gators do not belong free to wander about theme parks and resorts- sorry.
They have a huge chunk of the state where they are protected. Take them there.

Did you not see the photo I posted in this thread that shows that Orlando is the natural start of the Everglades, and humans have destroyed that?

Here it is again, since you do seem to have missed it.

But, I suppose Disney could just put up big signs around their property that warn the alligators to get out and stay out. Or maybe we can just send them to Gator Camps in the midwest.

 

[HopperFan]

I live in a sub division that is surrounded by town land on 2 sides. The town decided to sell a large portion to that land to the Toll Brothers and as you can imagine its becoming subdivision heaven, 1 already built and another being built now. Ever since that I have had a bear in the woods next to my house, a pack of wild dogs or coyotes run through my yard one night. I saw one (pretty sure it was a coyote) in there while I was doing the dishes staring out of my window one day.
I have a deer family that comes to my cherry trees every morning. There is a hawks nest in a tree in my neighbors yard and there is a screech owl close enough to wake me up at night sometimes. There is also something coming onto my front lawn at night that scares my dog, there are days where she won't step foot on the grass.
Wildlife here is very normal here in the suburbs. They were here first

100% agree. Urban/suburban sprawl has driven many wild animals into the city.

We live in a cookie cutter, culdesac, subdivision, no land left suburb of Atlanta. Bears are walking down the streets in broad daylight. I often have deer in my front yard in the day and small herds out there several nights a week. We had a high school girl running in her subdivision chased by coyote and if you have outdoor cats ....... yeah they will disappear. We have huge hawk in our backyard clearing out the chipmunks while we watch closely our little dog.

But all we are really trying to say I think is those of us in the urban/suburban areas are now receiving many critters that used to only be seen in rural areas ................. so we are not the least bit surprised or distressed that there are alligators living ............. where it is natural for them to live.

Did you not see the photo I posted in this thread that shows that Orlando is the natural start of the Everglades, and humans have destroyed that?

Here it is again, since you do seem to have missed it.

But, I suppose Disney could just put up big signs around their property that warn the alligators to get out and stay out. Or maybe we can just send them to Gator Camps in the midwest.

Yeah ..... I think it's pointless. It's either we are being pranked or there is no reality.

 

[DOOM1001]

If this has been mentioned yet, I would also like say, say, sinkholes. There have been situations where families have been killed - entire families - due to sinkholes that develop because of mismanaged homes and builders that are greedy and build on unstable land. You can't put basements here because of the water table. You move water in one direction and it butterfly effects into another area. My fils lake is sinking because of a stupid housing development several miles away.

Several years ago there was a sinkhole in the Orlando area where a man died. He was sleeping, the hole opened so fast that he had no chance to escape.
And if you think theme parks are exempt from these forces of nature, they aren't. Cypress gardens/Legoland has a huge "managed" hole.

The man who died and was never found after falling into a sinkhole was in Plant City,I believe,like just east of Tampa.I stayed at the Summer Bay resort on 192 just east of US 27 2 weeks before one of the buildings fell into a sinkhole.I stayed at the hotel at the front of the property probably a football field away from the building with the sinkhole.If you want more Central Florida sinkhole info that nice lake in downtown Orlando is actually a sinkhole and already discussed on these boards on another thread is that the reason Horizons in Epcot closed was a sinkhole in that area of the park that required major infrastructure work from Disney to fix the situation after tearing down Horizons.

 

[IrishNYC]

Someone got hit by one of the Disney buses not too long ago...should we relocate all the buses?

Yes. Please sink them in the unsightly lakes.

More people have died on Mission Space than by alligator attack.

Put MS in the lake with the buses.

It is a growing problem. I saw a deer in Rock Creek Park last weekend, and I would bet you have coyotes in DC too. They have become very adapted to urban life.

In my suburb of Pittsburgh, deer sightings are a daily occurrence, and there are foxes, coyotes, and an occasional bear. Continued construction on what was once farm and forest land is making our encounters with wildlife more probable everywhere.

Wildlife are making a comeback everywhere in major cities....

I live a few miles from NYC. We have rabbits, groundhogs, wild turkeys and bald eagles living around here. We get deer and coyotes once in a while too.

I live in NYC (in one of the outer boroughs, not Staten Island - which, by the way, has a terrible deer problem! The population there is enormous.) and our neighborhood is full of opossum, skunk, raccoons, and occasionally rabbits. We also have a hawk in our neighborhood that eats all of those animals, along with squirrels and pigeons. There is at least one bald eagle pair that's had eaglets this year in a large park less than 5 miles from me, and we have at least one coyote pair in a park a mile or two in the other direction. At least once a year a coyote will show up in Manhattan. A few years ago my husband appeared on the news chasing one down Wall Street. He's come across a few possum in lower Manhattan, as well.

 

[Bluegrrl]

Thanks, I just remembered the hole bit.

There was a "small" hole near a house the we looked at while house shopping. Our realtor told us it was ok, but we were afraid of it and didn't buy despite the good price.

 

[Huff]

Gators do not belong free to wander about theme parks and resorts- sorry.
They have a huge chunk of the state where they are protected. Take them there.

Gators were there before Disney built. There is water everywhere in WDW, most of which was already there long before. When Disney finds gators they do remove them so not sure what your point is. In 45 years of WDW this is the first gator caused death and only the 2nd time anyone has ever been attacked. I have a suspicion that building the bungalows brought gators closer to shore where people were feeding them. How do you propose Disney rid all 27,000 acres of WDW of gators and prevent them from ever entering?

 

[anneboleyn]

Yes. Please sink them in the unsightly lakes.

BUT THEN THE ALLIGATORS WOULD DRIVE THE BUSES AROUND! NO ONE WOULD BE SAFE!! lol

 

[Planogirl]

If alligators are now appearing in Dallas I'm not sure what WDW can do about the gators.

Alligator captured outside Dallas ISD middle school
Alligator warning goes out to Lake Arlington residents

We already have bobcats and now we have to watch for alligators? I bet that they are releases because they grew too large.

 

[pa. dad]

Gators were there before Disney built. There is water everywhere in WDW, most of which was already there long before. When Disney finds gators they do remove them so not sure what your point is. In 45 years of WDW this is the first gator caused death and only the 2nd time anyone has ever been attacked. I have a suspicion that building the bungalows brought gators closer to shore where people were feeding them. How do you propose Disney rid all 27,000 acres of WDW of gators and prevent them from ever entering?

Hello. If one of the lions or tigers were to escape from the AK, I assume that that it would be treated seriously and they'd return the animals to a safer place. Just exactly HOW they'd do that, I honestly donlt know. I have seen people feeding gators but I haven't seen disney people removing them. That's not to say that it isn;t done just that I have not seen it.
I thought other posters might have some ideas or experience with HOW to control the gator problems. Where I live there are big deer problems and there are many accidents. The township from time to time issues hunting liscences to bring the numbers down. Animal lovers may not like this but there is only so much open space and once the numbers become too much, they feel this is what they have to do. Of course, the deer aren't trying to hurt anybody but the gators are.
I'm not sure why a gator on the loose does not require the same sense of urgency as lion or a bear on the loose.

 

[Huff]

Hello. If one of the lions or tigers were to escape from the AK, I assume that that it would be treated seriously and they'd return the animals to a safer place. Just exactly HOW they'd do that, I honestly donlt know. I have seen people feeding gators but I haven't seen disney people removing them. That's not to say that it isn;t done just that I have not seen it.

Lions at AK are not native to the area. If some escape that would be all there were. Catch them and you're done. Alligators are native. They are everywhere in FL that has water. Its not as if one simply got loose. Disney does capture them often as they are found. It has worked for 45 years without a single death from an alligator until now. Will have to wait and see why existing policies failed.

 

[tcufrog]

We already have bobcats and how we have to watch for alligators? I bet that they are releases because they grew too large.

We have foxes and a den of coyotes where we live along with raptor birds circling overhead. My kids swear they saw a bald eagle in our backyard once. Last month I had to scare away a duck couple that wanted to lay eggs next to our pool. My dh wants to get a dog and I've insisted that we get one large enough to not tempt the birds or predators.

We live in the center of DFW although it's a more rural pocket. We often see town residents riding horses down the street. A neighbor down the street has horses and cattle even though we live in an actual neighborhood.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I sure wish the DIS would do a Top 10 of the boards craziest threads instead of those boring "trip planning" ones.

I mean it really is bringing out some characters in this one.

 

[Planogirl]

Hello. If one of the lions or tigers were to escape from the AK, I assume that that it would be treated seriously and they'd return the animals to a safer place. Just exactly HOW they'd do that, I honestly donlt know. I have seen people feeding gators but I haven't seen disney people removing them. That's not to say that it isn;t done just that I have not seen it.
I thought other posters might have some ideas or experience with HOW to control the gator problems. Where I live there are big deer problems and there are many accidents. The township from time to time issues hunting liscences to bring the numbers down. Animal lovers may not like this but there is only so much open space and once the numbers become too much, they feel this is what they have to do. Of course, the deer aren't trying to hurt anybody but the gators are.
I'm not sure why a gator on the loose does not require the same sense of urgency as lion or a bear on the loose.

Lions and bears on the loose aren't all hunted down if they are in their natural habitat. If they become nuisance animals they might be but of course a lion's situation is different from a bear's. Alligators at WDW are in their own habitat. Environmentally they can be removed if they become too large but only after they've already made an appearance in the area. There is no way to keep them out.