WARNING: These Alligator Photos Are Straight From Your Nightmares

[ashling]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/jim-abernethy-alligators_n_4182418.html?utm_hp_ref=miami

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[Arcanetrance]

1. I think they're pretty cool

[Scuba]

2. I've never had a nightmare about alligator.

If I do tonight, it'll be your fault!

[ashling]

5. The amazing thing is that the photographer

jumped in the water with 'em

[hollysmom]

3. I think the last one looks kind of cute, like he smiling n/t

[magical thyme]

4. it's the twinkle in his eye...

I think he just spotted some foo....

[Arugula Latte]

8. Remember, never smile at a crocodile...

but this one a gator (?) so it's okay.

[hunter]

6. You don't want that to be the last thing you see while swimming.

Somewhere around the time Jaws 3D was advertised in the movie trailers I was snorkeling off one of California's Channel Islands. Something bumped my toes with a fin and then this huge dark animal flew past, right under my face. PANIC!

But it was just a sea lion having a little fun. It came back, looked at me with a kind of dog-like grin on it's face, and then it was gone.

Another time I was kayaking with my kid and something bumped our kayak hard. My kid was alarmed. The creature came back seconds later and popped it's head out of the water, less than a meter away from us. It was another sea lion and I swear it was laughing at us.

People do get bit by sea lions but I haven't heard of one eating anybody.

To an alligator I imagine we are just another kind of food.

[woo me with science]

7. They look so cute from the top.

[Arugula Latte]

9. I saw gators in the Everglades and it gave me the strangest, primeval feeling of fear.

I felt like I'd been transported back in time and I tapped into that primitive sense of just being prey. They are amazing animals, unchanged for eons.

[pink-o]

10. Humans are the species that would give me nightmares

Far worse than a predator who's evolved with a certain skill set! We're the worst on the planet: ask the guy who just came back from the Pacific, reporting about the garbage, the overfishing, the radiation from Fukashima...

The gators OTOH, are pretty cool.