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

 

[3RRL]

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.

Geez...that is even more interesting! Out West we never even think about that. I've heard some ranches losing cattle to bears or lions...even coyotes, but never gators!
Do you have small children? They must be a danger to youngins, especially those big suckers?

 

[IH3444]

(Dumb place for a rest area, unless you are looking to decrease the surplus Yankee population in Floridda)

Hurricanes are doing a great job also, my Uncle just moved back to NC.

 

[HGM]

Geez...that is even more interesting! Out West we never even think about that. I've heard some ranches losing cattle to bears or lions...even coyotes, but never gators!
Do you have small children? They must be a danger to youngins, especially those big suckers?

Sorry, but being from South Fla myself, I find that a bit amusing... I moved to Georgia about 7yrs ago, now... I grew up "playing" with gators, bing a bit of a redneck, we would go out in the glades and have a good time wich sometimes included catching gators... When I moved to Georgia, I found out about cyotes.... They make me nervous .. They hunt in packs and can be vicious .... We have cougars in some areas too, though I have never seen one, that makes me a bit more cautious.. Living there, I rarely ever gave an aligator a second thought.. Respect, yes, but never worried about them.... Its funny how you think differently about things you arent accustomed to isnt it?

 

[ejtaylor822]

WOW! Interesting post, thanks for sharing SkyPup. I thought it was interesting when I started cutting around here to see rats and the occassional snake at times, but, the 'gators - you win.

I think that qualifies as "hazardous working conditions".

Eddie

 

[frank_f15]

Geeze all i have to worry about is skeeters in the summer and snow in the winter

 

[3RRL]

Its funny how you think differently about things you arent accustomed to isnt it?

Indeed, that's why I made those comments. We have tons of coyotes out here and the occaisonal bear and I've seen lion tracks but never seen one on the property. But in perspective, we have a good sized Lab that makes us aware when they are snooping around and she chases them off or they avoid us. It seems gators would not be like that? I'd be afraid one of them big gators would eat the dog instead?

 

[dmccarty]

And the gator would eat the dog given a chance or people for that matter.

But to be fair to the gator, many of the attacks on people are when the people feed and play with the gator.

Right about the time I was chased out of FL by Hurricane Andrew and surplus yankees, there where three gator attacks on people.

One was a macho firefighter who thought it would be fun to play with a gator. He said the gator bit him when he was cleaning weeds off of his prop. Eventually he admited he went after the gator.

The second dude slipped off a sea wall and landed near a gator(s) who promptly attacked him. He later admitted he had been feeding said critters when he slipped. The paper had made him into a hero since he remembered a Wild Kingdom episode and went for the gator's eyes....

The third attack killed a young boy who had been canoing down a river. I think its the Loxahattchie(sp). My wife and father went down this river right after the attack. I have a picture of my wife in her kayak from that trip that I keep on my desk. As we put in the river a trapper was putting in his boat to go get the gator. We saw the gator shortly there after. I have a fuzzy picture somewhere of it. I think the gator was 6-8 feet long. Not real big. Where the gator was located and near the attack side the "river" is maybe 8-10 feet across, very shallow, and the water is crystal clear. And cold. No way you could fail to see the gator.

I don't see how that boy could get bit much less killed unless he and his family where feeding/playing with the gator. We paddled past that gator and it was only a few feet from us as we went by. He never moved.

Later,
Dan

 

[Iowachild]

Geeze all i have to worry about is skeeters in the summer and snow in the winter

I'll add an "Amen" to that!

 

[scott_vt]

(Dumb place for a rest area, unless you are looking to decrease the surplus Yankee population in Floridda)
David from Jax

Well Dave,
Ive been there enough times to keep my eyes open so as not to become a stastic Although I prefer my chances up in the woods of Vt over the glades of Fla But hey, thats just me

 

[SkyPup]

Geez, one time a couple of years ago, me and my waterfowling buddy had just finished dumping out about five dozen duck decoys into a thick marsh from the airboat.

I gunned the motor up to lauch us into the center of a floating "tussock" with my buddy standing down in front of me.

As the airboat nose grill breached the small bushes growing on top the tussock island and was catapulted up onto the tussock proper, suddenly over a dozen LARGE gators stood up and high tailed it for the water, snarling running and jumping in all directions all at once. Fortunatley, none of them landed in the airboat, but we were extremely shook up and got out of there ASAP and have NEVER tried to beach the boat into a tussock again!!!