100,000 alligators call South Carolina home<\/a>.<\/p>\nBeneath the surface<\/p>\n
Spotting a gator in the water can be tricky. In fact, most of the time you probably won’t see one, although the creatures are assuredly there, said\u00a0Morgan Hart, alligator project leader and biologist with DNR.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Alligators are very good at hiding,” Hart said. “Whether you see one or not isn’t really going to change the way you behave.”<\/p>\n
If you are to spot an alligator, you’ll likely catch one sunning on a bank. Either that or just a glimpse\u00a0\u2014 a splash or the ridge of its head or two beady eyes before they disappear below the surface.<\/p>\n
While skilled at hiding, that doesn’t mean an alligator means any harm to humans. They’re predominantly docile creatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alligators are “just existing in that space and you may be in that space with them,” Hart said.<\/p>\n
![\"Swig](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
<\/p>\n
An alligator floats in the boat docking area at Swig and Swine, Friday, August 9, 2024, in Moncks Corner.<\/p>\n
Laura Bilson\/Staff<\/p>\n
Curious creatures\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keeping an eye on gator behavior is key. The majority will actively avoid humans. But if one purposefully approaches a person, it’s often out of animalistic curiosity or it’s been conditioned to trust humans, Hart said. It’s the latter that is of concern.<\/p>\n
Gators that frequently hang out around humans \u2014\u00a0at boat ramps or fishing piers, for example \u2014\u00a0might have been either knowingly or accidentally fed by humans in the past.<\/p>\n
In South Carolina, it is strictly illegal to “feed, entice or molest an alligator<\/a>,” unless explicitly authorized to so. The crime is charged as a misdemeanor, and conviction could mean a 30-day stint in jail, a fine of up to $150 or both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State waterways are playgrounds for boaters, kayakers and more, especially during the summertime. But these recreational spaces are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[24431,60123,79,5614,60124,201],"class_list":["post-87416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alligators","tag-kayak","tag-science","tag-south-carolina","tag-swim","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}