Disney resort custodian says he warned managers they should have fences

[quaker bill]

24. Avoid them all, probably not

alligator attacks were unheard of when the species was on the endangered list. They had been hunted down to a very small population and the endocrine disruption from DDT and DDE created sterile males in many places. The banning of the pesticide and hunting for 20 or 30 years has resulted in a massive rebound. Large population of big gators can be found in most large bodies of water anywhere in the state.

Considering the amount of close contact between humans and gators, the attacks are quite rare. The attacks mostly happen during this time of year (mating season). Some of this may be prey seeking, but I would bet a lot of it is territorial. You can observe plenty of gators missing legs or chunks of tail from these battles, and they seem to survive the massive wounds they at times give each other just fine.

The Disney attack has the hallmark of a gator taking prey, as I have seen them do just exactly this with ducks and wading birds on a number of occasions.