If you’re planning to spend July cooling off in a Florida lake or canal, wildlife experts have a message: think twice, and definitely don’t hand-feed the resident alligators.
Recent alligator attacks across the state—including a deadly incident—have put the spotlight back on an uncomfortable truth about summer in Southwest Florida: we’re sharing our favorite swimming holes with 1.3 to 2 million alligators, and right now is peak season for encounters. But here’s the thing: panic isn’t the answer. Understanding why summer ramps up gator activity, and what mistakes trigger attacks, is.
Patty Register, co-owner of Gatorama in Glades County, and Chris Lechowicz, Director of Wildlife and Habitat Management for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, both point to the same convergence of factors. Breeding season is in full swing—females are nesting and aggressively protective, males are territorial and aggressive trying to mate, and in parts of Florida, drought conditions are funneling more alligators into fewer water sources. Add in decades of coastal development pushing neighborhoods deeper into traditional wildlife habitat, and you get the recipe for more human-gator run-ins. Register puts it bluntly: It’s not worth taking a chance during these months.
But here’s where it gets interesting: wild alligators are naturally afraid of us. An adult human is not on the menu. That changes—catastrophically—the moment someone feeds an alligator. Register demonstrated the difference at Gatorama, where fed captive alligators will approach her willingly. In the wild, those same animals would dive and swim away. Once they associate people with food, their natural fear evaporates and the danger spikes. One behavioral shift, and a shy reptile becomes a threat.
Pet owners face a different calculus. A small dog at the water’s edge isn’t a person—it’s prey. Lechowicz notes that alligators naturally hunt animals like dogs, and over the years, people have been bitten trying to rescue pets. Keeping your dog on a leash and away from the water’s edge isn’t paranoia; it’s common sense.
The bottom line from both experts: respect, not fear. Avoid swimming at dawn or dusk when gators are most active, assume every freshwater body in Florida has an alligator, and never feed them. Register reminds us that alligators are a keystone species—their populations keep other ecosystems in balance. They deserve protection, but they also deserve our distance. This is Florida. Share the water wisely.
