One recent Sunday afternoon, a six-foot-long American crocodile decided to sun itself on the margin of the mangrove swamp in Miami’s Kennedy Park, just 30 feet from a main walking and running path that is visible from busy South Bayshore Drive.
Someone noticed.
The crocodile drew a crowd. Police cordoned off the area, and summoned a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer to capture and relocate the beast.
This wasn’t the first time. Several months before, the FFWCC relocated a crocodile from the same spot with far less hoopla early on a weekday morning.
Shortly after the second relocation event, a sturdy fence bearing a big yellow and black crocodile caution sign appeared in front of that portion of the swamp. Across the park, a similar sign went up beside a mangrove-lined canal that separates Kennedy Park from the waterfront homes along Rockerman Road.
The signs put all visitors to the heavily used park on notice that crocodiles are in the area. Many express surprise and concern, but it wasn’t news to Kennedy Park’s regular users, including me. We’ve shared crocodile sightings for years. The massive saurians occasionally swim past just offshore in Biscayne Bay, clearly visible from the bridge that spans the tidal creek draining our park’s mangrove swamp into the bay.
A species in recovery
Other city and county parks along the Biscayne Bay shore also are receiving such signs. They reflect the American crocodile’s remarkable recovery from the brink of extinction in Florida.
Found throughout the Caribbean, the American crocodile once inhabited Florida as far north as St. Lucie County on the Atlantic coast and the Peace River estuary, which opens into the Gulf of Mexico in Charlotte County. Crocodiles are shy and reclusive, and did not adapt well to the impact on their coastal habitat of people and community development.
“In 1975, the American crocodile was federally listed as endangered,” says the FFWCC. “At that time, annual nesting had fallen to 10 to 20 nests, and it was estimated that there were less than 300 crocodiles in Florida.”
Most of the remaining Florida crocodiles dwelt in just two locations: the cooling canals adjacent to the Turkey Point nuclear power plant south of Homestead, and the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge near the north end of Key Largo. Both areas are closed to the public, except where the south end of Card Sound Road bisects the refuge. Ironically, few people driving that road ever see a crocodile there.
The FFWCC estimates Florida’s current crocodile population at 1,500 to 2,000, not including hatchlings, with more than 100 nests a year. Florida still lists the crocodile as endangered, but the federal government has downgraded its status to threatened. As the population has grown, the crocodile is recolonizing its former range, and becoming more tolerant of human proximity.
Never smile
The good news is that crocodiles won’t bother you if you don’t bother them. “There has never been a documented bite on a person by an American crocodile in Florida,” says the FFWCC.
Nonetheless, my spouse (Rosalie E. Leposky, Miami Food and Drink Examiner) recently warned some children in Kennedy Park who had lost a ball in the mangroves that they shouldn’t go rummaging around the swamp to search for it. Who knows? She might have prevented history from being made.
Pets are another matter. Dogs, cats, and other small animals roaming free are easy prey for both crocodiles and alligators, so keep your pets on leash anywhere near the water.
Although crocodiles prefer salt water and alligators live primarily in fresh water, some overlap does occur. You can tell the difference between the two species because:
• Alligators are black and crocodiles are grayish-green.
• The alligator’s snout is broad and rounded, while the crocodile’s snout tapers forward from its eye sockets to a point.
• When the alligator’s jaws are closed, only its upper teeth are visible; the crocodile has a protruding fourth tooth on its lower jaw.
• Finally, the crocodile is shy and likely to flee from you. The alligator is far more aggressive. If you encounter a big lizard with lots of teeth, don’t smile at it and don’t wait for a formal introduction. Give it plenty of space, and begin a slow, measured retreat so you don’t look like potential prey.
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