I was early in this swamp, came around a curve in the main trail only half paying attention and…

The rule is simple, he who is first owns the spot.

It’s easily enforced when you are about 7 foot (2 meters). Luckily only his head and shoulders were sticking out into the trail. At best the trail is 10 foot (3 meters) wide here.

The old trick with the Herons, don’t stare at them and each can ignore the other…that one usually works here too. It’s just a heck of a lot harder to walk past and share a trail like this with an Alligator bigger than yourself. It’s not a natural thing.

We both played by the rules this morning and as usual there were no issues. I have had them stand up as you walk by. Now that is interesting and it always happens when it’s too darned late, you are committed and walking next to him. In reality all the Alligator is doing is getting ready to jump away if you get too close. Even so it doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies!

Above is the view looking back after I had walked past him. The width of the trail, with swamp on both sides is big enough to share where he was. The curve right before him is tricky. Coming around that curve and perhaps looking up or out into the swamp and you momentarily will have a really big surprise.

So now I have 1,001 photographs of this.

Nobody passes on a shot like this.

I get the question often about Alligators and all the turtles they are seen with.

Do they eat them?

The short answer, yes.

The larger turtle here (click image to view full size) has several round holes in his shell. Teeth marks.

It’s like being really hungry and all you have is a very hard Walnut, or any nut. You would bite it for food. But, if you found anything easier, you would drop the hard shell and move on.