You're fine on the ground. They can only sprint for like 30' and their sprint isn't faster than you can run. You just gotta pay attention. They also don't usually attack when they're out of water and don't normally bite humans. Gators biting humans is a rare event.
I'm pretty fond of gators. I know a bit about 'em.
They have panthers in Florida, though they're rarely sighted. They're also pretty harmless to a full grown human.
I don't know a damned thing about them and I did not want to find out the hard way. It wasn't coming after us or anything, I just did not want to wait around for it to decide to
Well, for future reference, even I (with my femur the way it is) could easily avoid a gator - on land.
In the water, we're pretty well fucked if a gator decides we're food. Still, some folks survive even that. They get fucked up by a gator, but they survive. So, stay out of the water if you don't want to have to worry about 'em. When you're in the water, you're in their domain.
Also, once its down below like 65° gators won't do too much. They're cold blooded creatures and they slow down, not even eating, when the temperatures drop too low. They're mostly interested in sunning themselves at that point, or hanging out in the mud under the water.
I will make it a point to remember that. I don't encounter gators all that often but you never know
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