{"id":217529,"date":"2026-04-03T14:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217529\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:04:08","slug":"alligator-mating-season-sparks-safety-warning-at-central-florida-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217529\/","title":{"rendered":"Alligator mating season sparks safety warning at Central Florida parks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">City officials in Oviedo issued a safety alert for visitors to Shane Kelly Park after a large alligator was spotted at the facility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The warning follows a reminder that alligator mating season has begun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The alligator was seen sunning along the shore of a pond located inside the park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The start of mating season means the reptiles are more active than usual.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">To ensure public safety, the city advised guests to keep children and pets away from the water\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials stated these precautions are especially important during dawn and dusk hours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The city also issued a reminder that feeding alligators in Florida is illegal under state law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Feeding alligators causes them to lose their natural fear of people, which can lead to dangerous behavior and public safety issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here;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 here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:click here;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 here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"537\" height=\"108\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City officials in Oviedo issued a safety alert for visitors to Shane Kelly Park after a large alligator&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[98949,15691,28,30,29,84102,277,98947,98948],"class_list":["post-217529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alligators-in-florida","tag-city-officials","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-mating-season","tag-public-safety","tag-safety-alert","tag-shane-kelly-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217529","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=217529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}