Alligator Attacks Our Tractor

[SkyPup]

Last night as I was coming into the farm on my motorcycle, our ranch manager came up to me and told me our Ford 4610 4WD had been attacked by a 10-foot hen gator.

Apparently, one of the workers had been mowing our 2,000 acre cattle pasture prairie the last few days and yesterday he felt the batwing jam up out in the middle of the prairie adjacent to a large pond. He got out to see what was up and a large female gator was thrashing in the left side. She apparently had attcked the 4610, bitting onto the left rear tire and getting tossed up into the wheel well and then fell back down into the cutters and was slashed up and stuck in the machinery, she died a few minutes later.

There was a gator nest in the tall bahia grass about 100 yards from the pond that the batwing had accidentally run over, exposing about 25 baby gators that had recently hatched out. The big hen gator then ran out and attacked the rear tire, getting pulled up and flipped over into the batwing blades.

We called the Fish and Game Officer to come investigate and they removed the baby gators and took them to their research lab on Paynes Prairie.

First time I've heard of a gator attacking a tractor!

 

[roxynoodle]

Geez, what a story! All I have to worry about are mice chewing the wires and birds pooping on me while operating! I'm glad the guy mowing wasn't attacked. Florida seems to be populated with a slew of interesting critters you don't find in my neck of the woods. My parents live there and one night a bobcat fell through their screened in lanai and landed in the pool. Still, it wasn't an alligator.

 

[SkyPup]

No kidding, alligator attacks are 300% more fatal than shark attacks!

And I haven't ever heard of a shark attacking a tractor!!!

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/attacks/relariskgator.htm

 

[firemanpat2910]

there is a 6 footer that hangs out at one of the properties I bushhog. I look for it every time I mow. If its in the pond it is fine if its not Im extra carefull in the deep grass. I also dont take my black lab with me when going to this property. She used to swim in that pond all the time and I dont want her to jump in there while Im busy on the tractor! Most days the gator just floats in the pond and watches me and eats any cow birds that try and drink HIS pond water.

 

[scott_vt]

Geez, what a story! All I have to worry about are mice chewing the wires and birds pooping on me while operating! I'm glad the guy mowing wasn't attacked. Florida seems to be populated with a slew of interesting critters you don't find in my neck of the woods. My parents live there and one night a bobcat fell through their screened in lanai and landed in the pool. Still, it wasn't an alligator.

Skypup,
Did the tire go flat ? Sorry had to ask

 

[SkyPup]

The Ford 4610 has R1s with large ribs, apparently she bit onto a rib and did not puncture the carcass, but then became a carcass herself when she was knocked off the rotating tire into the swirling bush hog blades, without even shearing a pin.

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

Now that is a thread title I haven't see before...

 

[3RRL]

No kidding, alligator attacks are 300% more fatal than shark attacks!

Really, I thought dead was dead??...Just kidding you.
I've never heard of this ever happening before. Very interesting story indeed. Did it make your local paper by any chance? Also, are you aware of any other spots on your property that has gators where this could happen again?

 

[SkyPup]

Our property probably has over 150 gators on it over four feet long, some are larger than 12 feet. Last year we harvested a 12 foot bull and another 10 footer during legal alligator season.

Each year we lose 4-5 calves to the gators.

When I came in through the gates tonight, there were about 50 buzzards on the hen gator carcass.

Here is an aerial view of where the gator nest was located when she attacked the tractor. The orange spot is where her nest was and the black spots are cows.....

 

[sandman2234]

That is just what Paynes Prarrie needs, is more gators. Before they dropped the water level, you could see a couple of dozen in the ditches alongside I-75, and that was just on one side!
I saw an 8 footer walking up the interstate shoulder in front of that Insurance Companies building that is just north of Paynes Prarrie. The strange part about that one, is it was broad daylight, and the Gator had appartently walked right past the rest area that is on the north side of the Prarrie. (Dumb place for a rest area, unless you are looking to decrease the surplus Yankee population in Floridda)
David from Jax