Alligator "knocks" on woman's door.

[Ken]

Says the guy who lives in New York.

He’s just never tried swimming during breeding season. Those females and their eggs… such a treasure to get them, you gotta eat them quick though before you get ate yourself.

I was just thinking this. A former Floridian who goes to our church talks about gators and their preferred diet - dogs and cats . People living on lakes have their rottweilers and german shepherds turn up missing. He told me that one gator caught and killed during the annual hunt measured 26 feet long from nose to tail tip. Gator mating season they're especially dangerous.
The guy said he was glad to get away from the gators, the poisonous snakes, and the hurricanes and that's why they moved here. Then Helene hit and he said well two out of three isn't bad but when gators make it this far north he's leaving.

Your former Floridian is exaggerating. The biggest Alligator ever officially recorded in Florida was 14' 3". Here are the Florida alligator records:
https://myfwc.com/media/1741/alligator-record-table.pdf and here is an article https://animals.howstuffworks.com/repti ... igator.htm

Crocodiles are larger than alligators. And the largest saltwater crocodile ever recorded was a 20' monster in New Guinea.

And their primary diet is fish, turtles, and water birds but they will opportunistically take small mammals like racoons, nutria, or even deer that stray too close to the water, or people's pets in populated areas.

Here in WA we live on a greenbelt and see deer, coyotes, and the rare bobcat passing by. People who let their cats or small dogs roam outside end up losing them to the coyotes. Every time I see a "lost cat" flyer up around the neighborhood it is probably 95% chance it was taken by coyotes. That's what happens when people choose live next to wildlife. We have no venomous snakes though. Too cold I think. But there are rattlesnakes in eastern WA.

By the way, if you want to be pedantic (and in case Ohio Jones is reading),there is no such thing as a "poisonous" snake. All snake species in the US are edible. Snakes are venomous, not poisonous. Rule of thumb. If you bite it and you die it was poisonous. If it bites you and you die it was venomous. That is a test question I usually put on my final exams in biology class.

[Soloist]

He’s just never tried swimming during breeding season. Those females and their eggs… such a treasure to get them, you gotta eat them quick though before you get ate yourself.

I was just thinking this. A former Floridian who goes to our church talks about gators and their preferred diet - dogs and cats . People living on lakes have their rottweilers and german shepherds turn up missing. He told me that one gator caught and killed during the annual hunt measured 26 feet long from nose to tail tip. Gator mating season they're especially dangerous.
The guy said he was glad to get away from the gators, the poisonous snakes, and the hurricanes and that's why they moved here. Then Helene hit and he said well two out of three isn't bad but when gators make it this far north he's leaving.

Your former Floridian is exaggerating. The biggest Alligator ever officially recorded in Florida was 14' 3". Here are the Florida alligator records:
https://myfwc.com/media/1741/alligator-record-table.pdf and here is an article https://animals.howstuffworks.com/repti ... igator.htm

Crocodiles are larger than alligators. And the largest saltwater crocodile ever recorded was a 20' monster in New Guinea.

And their primary diet is fish, turtles, and water birds but they will opportunistically take small mammals like racoons, nutria, or even deer that stray too close to the water, or people's pets in populated areas.

Here in WA we live on a greenbelt and see deer, coyotes, and the rare bobcat passing by. People who let their cats or small dogs roam outside end up losing them to the coyotes. Every time I see a "lost cat" flyer up around the neighborhood it is probably 95% chance it was taken by coyotes. That's what happens when people choose live next to wildlife. We have no venomous snakes though. Too cold I think. But there are rattlesnakes in eastern WA.

By the way, if you want to be pedantic (and in case Ohio Jones is reading),there is no such thing as a "poisonous" snake. All snake species in the US are edible. Snakes are venomous, not poisonous. Rule of thumb. If you bite it and you die it was poisonous. If it bites you and you die it was venomous. That is a test question I usually put on my final exams in biology class.

Wife: yah, there may have been a mixup with a python, given the measurements. Usually don’t hear of them past 15 feet, and the Florida record is 17 1/2.

Still not something you want to tango with on a hot day, and I have heard plenty of stories about pets. Also, had someone tell my son a story about how he was fishing in his family’s pond when he was about my son’s age, and caught a gator and started yelling because he did not want to lose his good pole, and finally the uncle came and got it.

I personally prefer to meet my gators on the other side of a large fence or on a dinner plate.

[ohio jones]

By the way, if you want to be pedantic (and in case Ohio Jones is reading),there is no such thing as a "poisonous" snake. All snake species in the US are edible. Snakes are venomous, not poisonous. Rule of thumb. If you bite it and you die it was poisonous. If it bites you and you die it was venomous. That is a test question I usually put on my final exams in biology class.

I personally prefer to meet my gators on the other side of a large fence or on a dinner plate.

If you bite it after it dies, it's edible.
If you bite it before it dies, you're deadible.

[JohnL]

I personally prefer to meet my gators on the other side of a large fence or on a dinner plate.

If you bite it after it dies, it's edible.
If you bite it before it dies, you're deadible.

I’ll have to see if gator tail is considered good eats when smoked. Our former Floridian says it tastes like chicken.

Then there’s the story of the 50 ft Congo snake photographed in 1959. https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/ ... -4-221789/
It was taken by a Belgian helicopter pilot. While it’s not poisonous I wouldn’t want to try to kill it without help. Is it real? No one seems to know. Maybe we need to call King Kong.

[barnhart]

I’ll have to see if gator tail is considered good eats when smoked. Our former Floridian says it tastes like chicken.

I've eaten it. It's nothing special, chicken is a good comparison, maybe a bit more of a wild taste or maybe a hint of fish.

[JohnL]

I’ll have to see if gator tail is considered good eats when smoked. Our former Floridian says it tastes like chicken.

I've eaten it. It's nothing special, chicken is a good comparison, maybe a bit more of a wild taste or maybe a hint of fish.

Would probably be on the dry side since it’s all muscle. Would have to use an oil-based mop sauce to keep it from tasting like cardboard.

[Ken]

I personally prefer to meet my gators on the other side of a large fence or on a dinner plate.

If you bite it after it dies, it's edible.
If you bite it before it dies, you're deadible.

I’ll have to see if gator tail is considered good eats when smoked. Our former Floridian says it tastes like chicken.

Then there’s the story of the 50 ft Congo snake photographed in 1959. https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/ ... -4-221789/
It was taken by a Belgian helicopter pilot. While it’s not poisonous I wouldn’t want to try to kill it without help. Is it real? No one seems to know. Maybe we need to call King Kong.

The story you linked to is about a supposed anaconda photographed from the air by a Belgian pilot over the Congo. Several problems with that story.

1. Anaconda are native to the South American Amazon, not the Congo.
2. The largest Anaconda ever recorded was about 26 ft.
3. The largest snake species in Africa is the Rock Python which is smaller than the anaconda and there have been no confirmed specimens over 6 meters (about 19 ft). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_A ... ock_python

[Soloist]

I personally prefer to meet my gators on the other side of a large fence or on a dinner plate.

If you bite it after it dies, it's edible.
If you bite it before it dies, you're deadible.

I’ll have to see if gator tail is considered good eats when smoked. Our former Floridian says it tastes like chicken.

Then there’s the story of the 50 ft Congo snake photographed in 1959. https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/ ... -4-221789/
It was taken by a Belgian helicopter pilot. While it’s not poisonous I wouldn’t want to try to kill it without help. Is it real? No one seems to know. Maybe we need to call King Kong.

The story you linked to is about a supposed anaconda photographed from the air by a Belgian pilot over the Congo. Several problems with that story.

1. Anaconda are native to the South American Amazon, not the Congo.
2. The largest Anaconda ever recorded was about 26 ft.
3. The largest snake species in Africa is the Rock Python which is smaller than the anaconda and there have been no confirmed specimens over 6 meters (about 19 ft). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_A ... ock_python

Wife: I believe that 50 foot long snake was actually some people doing the Conga, and the photographer just didn’t know how to spell.

[JohnL]

Wife: I believe that 50 foot long snake was actually some people doing the Conga, and the photographer just didn’t know how to spell.

[barnhart]

There is a giant anaconda on display in the Brooklyn children's museum that I would have guessed at 30 feet but I see on the website it's listed at 300 lbs and twenty feet. In my defense a 20 foot snake is big enough that an extra 10 feet seems inconsequential.