Skip to main content
1stFlorida.com
Advertise With Us
☰

Ask 1stFlorida

What should I do if I see an alligator?

Keep your distance and leave it alone. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says to keep a safe distance from any alligator you see and never to handle one, even a small one.

Never feed an alligator: it is illegal and dangerous. Alligators are most active between dusk and dawn, so swim only in designated swimming areas, in daylight and without your pet, and keep pets on a leash and away from the water's edge.

If you believe an alligator at least 4 feet long is a threat to people, pets or property, call the commission's Nuisance Alligator Hotline, 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286). To report someone feeding alligators, or any other wildlife violation, call the Wildlife Alert line, 888-404-FWCC (888-404-3922).

Where to go from here.

An American alligator swimming below the observation tower at Shark Valley in Everglades National Park.01

Where can you see alligators and Florida wildlife?

Alligators are in fresh and brackish water in all 67 counties, so the question is where you can watch them safely from dry land.

Read the answer →
Generated image of a Florida black bear at a tipped-over garbage can at the edge of a wooded backyard at dusk, while a man stands well back on the steps of his house.02

What should I do if I see a bear?

Stay calm and do not go toward it. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says that if your being there changes what the bear is doing, you are too close.

Read the answer →
An eastern diamondback rattlesnake coiled in pine straw beside a palmetto in Florida.03

What snakes live in Florida?

About fifty native kinds, and only six of them are venomous: the eastern coral snake, the southern copperhead, the cottonmouth, the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, the timber rattlesnake and the dusky pygmy rattlesnake.

Read the answer →
Swimmers in the spring pool at Juniper Springs in the Ocala National Forest.04

Which Florida springs can you swim in?

Florida has more first-magnitude springs than anywhere else on earth, and most of them run at about seventy-two degrees every day of the year, so they are cold in August and warm in January.

Read the answer →

Where this comes from.

More questions like this.

Which Florida beaches have the sunrise?

The whole Atlantic coast, from Amelia Island down to Key Biscayne. The ones worth setting an alarm for are the undeveloped stretches, where nothing stands between the dune and the horizon.

Have a different question? Ask 1stFlorida →

⌂ Home