I'd like to say that I very much prefer to talk about Alligators

[spin]

28. I live in Florida and have been fairly close to a number of alligators ...

a good number of times. I don't view them as extremely dangerous but I was always careful when walking my dog on a leash anywhere near a body of water. I also was careful with my daughter in the same situation.

In general alligators are more afraid of you than you are of them. The problem is that many people feed gators and they lose their fear and view people as a source of food. If you see an alligator don't feed it. It's not harmless by any means. It may not attack you but some other person might become a victim.

At short distances an alligator can move amazingly fast. Never forget that. Keep a good distance away. In the water they are even faster in my opinion.

The closest I ever got to a big gator on the ground was probably ten feet. I ran across him on a walking trail in Sanibel Island's J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge at twilight. I wanted a good estimate of his size and I noticed he was missing a rear foot so I paced off his length which I estimated at 13 feet. He was a fairly big alligator.

The missing foot slowed him down on the ground but once he tired of my attention and entered the water he moved like greased lightning.