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Najakcharmer -> RE: I am Soooooooo Pissed.... (5/19/2006 5:28:26 PM)
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ORIGINAL: brightspot
I just watched 'Inside Edition' and they (among several news outlets) are talking like something "Mysterious" is making the alligators crazy human killing machines.
That something is very likely to be tourists acting like idiots. If you enter gator habitat and act like food, or teach the gators to associate human hands with food, Darwin's dues tend to get paid.
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They show footage of a huge alligator ducktaped from above the eyes all the way down it's snout, arms and legs ducktaped behind it's back, roped tied and being lifted into the back of a pick-up and it is flailing around and they continue to say how crazy it is behaving, WTF? I think any animal being treated as such would be a bit pissed off and struggle to get free, yet they blame the alligator for being out of control!
Duct tape is a common and in fact humane method of immobilizing crocodilians for transport. The tape over the eyes specifically triggers a vasovagal response that actually helps calm the animal. Think of it as putting blinders on a horse. Well cared for crocodilians in zoos that are being transported for veterinary care will be moved in exactly this manner, because it is humane and causes the least stress and risk to the animal.
The flailing suggests however that the immobilization was not applied correctly. Large crocodilians that are permitted to struggle for prolonged periods will self-induce a condition known as metabolic acidosis or capture acidosis, so minimizing their ability and desire to move with eye taping and hooding is good husbandry practice. There were some excellent papers by Heard and Fleming online on the subject, but they seem to have vanished into the Internet aether.
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I don't claim to know the answers but it does seem pretty simple to me that when this behavior has been a very, very uncomman and just recently surfaced, why don't they investagate that it just may be possible that something has gone wrong with the allegators food supply????
That would not be a reasonable conclusion. Local ecosystems have not been impacted enough to affect the wide range of prey items utilized by this rather resourceful species.
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Feeding the alligators might be a simple solution to the problem, but No, it makes much better news to get people in a frenzy and have them support cruelty to animals, makes me sick[:'(]!
Oh dear ghod no. Feeding wild crocodilians is a horribly bad idea. The normal behavior of a wild crocodilian is extremely human-aversive. The behavior of a crocodilian that has learned that humans bring food can be termed "food aggressive". Gators that are fed by idiots are the ones that end up being killed or relocated (which doesn't work so well in most cases), because they are the ones that behave in the "aggressive" manner taught to them. Eg, approach people closely, get food. Gators cannot tell the difference between a hot dog and a hand, so if you stick your hand out after a dozen people have been tossing hot dogs to teach the gator what to do, guess what happens.
Crocodilians learn very rapidly, and behavioral management through operant conditioning is rapidly emerging as the best method of working with them in the zoo environment. Crocodilians are remarkably smart and teachable critters, with meaningful social vocalizations, complex social structures and maternal care behaviors, including the recently documented behavior of a mother "feeding" her young while violently denying the male access to the same food supply. Their brains are four times denser, neurally speaking, than a mammal's. Which means that the little walnut sized brain is actually a lot more respectably functional than behaviorists were first thinking. The practical application of this bit of scientific fact, in terms of idiots doing stupid pet tricks with the native herpetofauna, is that it doesn't take very long at all to teach a gator that people = food. This is specifically why feeding or interacting with alligators is illegal in Florida.
I don't know what dumb shit they are currently spouting in the popular media about gator attacks. I only read the scientific literature on the subject. On the rare occasions I do see a story about crocodilians in the popular media, it is guaranteed to be good for a laugh. As the Queen of Alice in Wonderland says, "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." That's generally good practice for reading anything the popular media has to say on the subject.
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