Toddler dragged into water by alligator at Disney resort believed to be dead

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19. Alligators are everywhere in Florida

I live in North Florida on a 200 ft above sea level ridge with lakes on one side and a swamp and stream system on the other. The two water areas are almost a half mile apart. I've had alligators on the TOP of our ridge halfway between the two water systems. Usually they are 4-6 feet long and clearly relocating from one system to the other.

I've seen alligators on the roads here a couple of miles from the nearest water. They travel even when they don't have water to use as a path.

Now the Disney World facility is on what was originally oak scrub land, low lying with a ground water table only a few feet below the ground surface. To construct the park they dug out that nearly flat land, put in lakes, canals and drainage and used the material dug out to raise the ground level. They had to connect their artificial lakes to the local water sources which were already populated with alligators. The alligators freely travel between the Disney fake lakes and the natural areas.

In the mid 1960s when they started planning and construction, alligators were considered endangered so they had to relocate the animals. Disney has always had management plans to handle nuisance gators, but they cannot eradicate them - by law or in practicality.