alligators as friendly as dogs?
Aqua Girl
Greetings. I was just in a pet store that had an american alligator
hatchling that said that american aligators are as friendly as dogs. This
struck me as very odd. I knew they were more docile than crocs, but I've
never heard that. Can anyone verify?
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=======================ser...@hawk.phantasy.com==========================
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Shadowlkr1
Subject: alligators as friendly as dogs?
From: ser...@hawk.phantasy.com (Aqua Girl)
Date: 7 Mar 1997 08:36:50 GMT
Message-ID: <5fok32$p05$1...@news3.alpha.net>
Greetings. I was just in a pet store that had an american alligator
hatchling that said that american aligators are as friendly as dogs. This
struck me as very odd. I knew they were more docile than crocs, but I've
never heard that. Can anyone verify?
--
+++
I can verify that the pet store owners are idiots. American alligators
are not as snappy as caimans, but ANY crocodilian is a large and
potentially dangerous reptile when full, or even partly grown. And they
DO get huge. It only takes one off day for an alligator to seriously
injure someone. I have a big problem with pet stores selling baby
alligators in the first place. Caimans can conceivably be kept indoors.
An adult alligator simply requires too much space--up here in Michigan,
there is no way that the vast majority of people could possibly care for
one. And getting a pet only to get rid of it when it's older strikes me
as irresponsible in the extreme.
****spence****
Aqua Girl wrote:
>
> Greetings. I was just in a pet store that had an american alligator
> hatchling that said that american aligators are as friendly as dogs. This
> struck me as very odd. I knew they were more docile than crocs, but I've
> never heard that. Can anyone verify?
Just like puppies will whimper and look pitiful in an attempt to sucker
you into buying them, american alligators will often lie about their
true nature in an attempt to befriend you and get chicken.
Like all big herps, I'm sure one *could* be gentle. Untill it tears your
arm off that is...
-spence
--
***** Jeff Spencer <spe...@eai.com>
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***** Engineering Animation --> http://www.eai.com
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Layna Ayre Andersen
Aqua Girl (ser...@hawk.phantasy.com) wrote:
: Greetings. I was just in a pet store that had an american alligator
: hatchling that said that american aligators are as friendly as dogs. This
: struck me as very odd. I knew they were more docile than crocs, but I've
: never heard that. Can anyone verify?
Actually, they made a little mistake - what they meant to say was, they
EAT dogs!
Layna (in Florida, alligator heaven)
SCK
Aqua Girl wrote:
>
> Greetings. I was just in a pet store that had an american alligator
> hatchling that said that american aligators are as friendly as dogs. This
> struck me as very odd. I knew they were more docile than crocs, but I've
> never heard that. Can anyone verify?
Yes and no. My experience with caimans and alligators is that both of
them can be calmed down by rubbing them with your index finger along the
neck (you do this with your hand supporting the animal underneath, not
the same way you'd do it face-forward to a cat). The difference is, once
you calm your gator down, he can be pretty friendly, whereas your
typical caiman, the moment you spook him by even moving, he immediately
reverts back into a savage.
To put this into practical terms, I'm afraid of my caiman but I'm not
afraid of my Florida gator. In fact, I boot the dogs outside once a week
and drag the gator upstairs and we watch NBC's Thursday night line-up
together. Usually I let Stanley lie on one of my legs once he calms
down. If I rile him up a little though, he'll snap, but really this is
more of a closing-of-the-mouth and then a swish with the neck while the
mouth remains closed. He's never bitten me, and I do some pretty rough
stuff to him, although he did bite the couch once. I don't know if I'd
ever really trust him, I mean, you can tell Stanley's brain isn't very
large because of all of NBC's Thursday night shows, he likes the Single
Guy best.
To be fair, Stanley isn't even 3' yet, but he appears to get more mellow
with size and my intuition is that larger gators in captivity increase
exponentially in laziness. Also, he lives with an equivalent-sized
savannah monitor who is always crawling all over him, and so he's kind
of gotten used to being prodded. My caiman on the other hand is over 4'
and he's an unprincipled brute who bites anything, whether it's food or
lightbulbs.
gatorfan
Where are they selling alligators? Since they are still
listed as a threatened species, this is illegal! As far
as being "friendly as dogs", will your dog eat you for
dinner?
Donald L. Blanchard
I strongly suspect that there are dogs out there that will. Maybe, just maybe,
there are alligators that won't.
__
Donald L. Blanchard
Morrison Natural History Museum (Herp Volunteer)
Morrison, Colorado, USA
dlb...@earthlink.net | http://home.earthlink.net/~dlblanc/
morrm...@earthlink.net
------ Standard Disclaimer ------
Mike Canzoneri
> Aqua Girl wrote:
> >
> > Greetings. I was just in a pet store that had an american alligator
> > hatchling that said that american aligators are as friendly as dogs.
I think the sign probably said "American Alligators will eat friendly
dogs.".
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no...@nowhere.com
Dear gatorfan, yes it is legal to sell alligators. In some states they
have even hunted them, Fla., La., SC. Check the facts. And yes they can
become tame as dogs....but dogs do bite.
gatorfan
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According to info from the US Fish and Wildlife Service's
webpage, American Alligators are "threatened", making
"commercialization" illegal.
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Groups--Animals, Reptiles .... Listed As--Threatened(Similarity of appearance)
Special Rules in 50 CFR--17.42(a)............. Date First Listed--March 11, 1967
Federal Register Citation Numbers: First Listing--1, Current Status--269
Historic Range: Southeastern U.S.A.
This Status Likely To Occur In: NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, LA, TX, AR, OK
Population To Which This Status Applies: Entire
Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1531-1543). This Act prohibits the importation, exportation, taking, and
commercialization in interstate or foreign commerce of fish and wildlife, and plants that are listed as threatened or
endangered species. The Act also implements the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
---------------------------------304862648024995--
John A. Wiley
gatorfan (gato...@phoenixat.com) wrote:
: This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
: ---------------------------------304862648024995
: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
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: According to info from the US Fish and Wildlife Service's
: webpage, American Alligators are "threatened", making
: "commercialization" illegal.
The statement below reads "commercialization in interstate
or foreign commerce"...
This appears to me to be stating that you aren't allowed to commerce
over state lines... IOW, as long as you aren't engaging in moving
CB American Alligators across state lines, you aren't doing anything
illegal...
Enjoy,
-jw
: ---------------------------------304862648024995
