Journal 4

In this Colloquium class I learned a lot about different types of species in Southwest Florida, some of them I knew a good amount about, and some other species were new to me. However the two things that I wanted to talk about are the American Alligator or "All-igator" and Alligator flags.

Even though I am scared of them the American Alligator are very special animals. They have been around for a very long time and are very dangerous animals. It is a known fact that alligators use an incredible amount of force to clamp their jaws on their prey, but however even though they can clamp down really hard they are extremely weak when it comes to opening up their mouths. A person could hold the jaws closed of an alligator with no problem; that is how weak the alligator is when it comes to opening their mouth. Besides from have a killer bite another thing to be aware about with the alligator is its vicious tail. Many people underestimate the alligator think its bite is the only thing to worry about, but its tail is also strong, strong enough to break bones with a single whip. They are also very after and could run up to 30 MPH in short bursts, which makes these animals very dangerous.

Earlier settlers had to deal with this problem when first arriving to this southern area of Florida, but luckily they had an advantage on their side which came in the form of "alligator flags". These flags were swamp plants and let people know how deep the water was and also if there were any predators like the alligator nearby. All they had to do was look and listen and if there was movement in the swamp and the flags were going than they knew that there was probably and alligator on the move. If these "warning" flags were not available to early settlers than I believe that it would have been hard for them to survive.


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