{"id":196032,"date":"2026-03-18T07:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196032\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T07:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:40:13","slug":"osceola-county-deputy-wrangles-alligator-as-mating-season-approaches-in-florida-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196032\/","title":{"rendered":"Osceola County deputy wrangles alligator as mating season approaches in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Brief<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida officials warn alligator activity is increasing as spring mating season approaches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sightings are rising as gators roam more and may act more aggressive or territorial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Residents are urged to keep their distance and call professionals if a gator poses a risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">ORLANDO, Fla. &#8211; Wildlife officials in Florida are warning residents to remain alert as alligator activity increases ahead of the state\u2019s spring mating season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Authorities say sightings of alligators in unexpected locations tend to rise this time of year, as the animals become more active and begin roaming beyond their usual habitats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Local perspective<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In Osceola County, deputies recently responded to a report of a roughly 6.5-foot alligator found in a neighborhood water culvert near a school. The animal was safely captured and relocated to a larger body of water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/fox-local\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP&quot;}\" class=\"link \">CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Experts at Gatorland say the start of breeding season, which typically begins in the spring, often leads to increased movement and more frequent encounters with humans. During this period, alligators may appear more aggressive or territorial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials are urging residents to keep a safe distance from alligators and avoid attempting to handle or approach them. They also advise contacting wildlife professionals if an alligator is spotted in an area where it poses a potential risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35&#039;S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35&#039;&quot;}\" class=\"link \">SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35&#8217;S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida is home to a large population of alligators, and encounters, while usually avoidable, are more likely during warmer months when the reptiles are most active.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Source<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This story was written based on information shared by the Osceola County Sheriff&#8217;s Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Florida officials warn alligator activity is increasing as spring mating season approaches. Sightings are rising as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,84102,1976],"class_list":["post-196032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-mating-season","tag-osceola-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}