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This little trail on the edge of Paynes Prairie in Gainesville, Fl is a good spot for gators. I Saw about 300 yesterday. Most of the gators are on the east bank so the light is better in the afternoon. The praire is drying down after 1.5 years of flooding. N70, sigma 400 + 1.4x, provia 100f

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), November 15, 1999

Answers

Nice shot and a good illustration of parental care in reptiles. I like it!

-- Billy Gorum (Herphoto@aol.com), November 15, 1999.

Larry,

I love this shot. Wish you hadn't cut off the end of her right rear foot, but otherwise excellent. The composition sure emphasizes the movement of babies to mom. Hope you kept your distance. Re parental care: below is a shot of a baby (I hope I know how to do this) I found out on the dike at our study site a couple of weeks ago - surprisingly, he let me come right up to him and ackle him a bit while taking pics. He let out a few alarm clucks and mom cruised up to the shoreline about 20' away. She moved in and out a bit, but didn't seem too concerned. When I was done, I picked the little fellow up to toss him back in her direction, and the tone of his alarm calls must have changed somehow - she exploded out of the water like she had rocket packs on. If you'd like to come down and photograph her, you should be able to find her easily - there's a big brown spot on the dike where I was taking pictures.

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), November 16, 1999.

Larry, great shot! I've been to Paynes Prairie a couple times and really enjoyed it. Did not see as many Gators as you but I heard since the flooding last year there's been many more visible. I would have loved to have taken a picture of all the glowing eyes at night when they they were so numerous they were swarming in the roads and such. In any case, this is a jewel of a behavioral shot! Donna

-- Donna P. Bollenbach (cassidy@icubed.net), November 16, 1999.

I never thought an alligator picture would make me smile, but this one does. Good job. Um, you were leaning over a fence, right?

-- Darron Spohn (sspohn@concentric.net), November 17, 1999.

The blue water really 'makes' the picture .. good shot.

-- Santanu Nag (santanu_nag@hotmail.com), November 17, 1999.

I've asked Peter to come up and imitate the baby gator distress call. We'll see how many of those 300 gators are moms. Although image taken under blue sky, the water was muddy.

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), November 17, 1999.