This second specimen of an American alligator is significantly larger than the first in this series. It's only about a foot longer but much heavier, and quite likely much older.

I got back out to Paynes Prairie today. The water level is dropping rapidly. Generally speaking when the water supply decreases the gators become more and more concentrated, which makes sense; they all need water.

Just the same as the water decreases so does their usual food source - fish and turtles. Of course (high water level or low) a lot of deer, raccoons, opossum, dogs and the like find themselves in harm's way by just taking a drink in what looks like peaceful water.

During serious drought, when the gator holes actually begin to dry up, gators hike (the small ones first) - in pursuit of water. I once saw one crossing a two-lane black-top in the afternoon more than a mile from water, and on one occasion found one in a gopher tortoise hole seeking refuge from the summer's noon-day sun. Of course he might have been looking for a snack as well - more than a half mile from the closest water, which was the Suwanee River.

Ciao!

Paynes Prairie (an overcast day) - Up close and personal with the business end of another fully mature "bull" alligator.

Note: This partial image of the alligator skull is a life size representation of a 10-foot alligator.

This fully mature bull alligator (~10 feet / ~500+ pounds) has reached his prime. He should get longer and heavier in the years to come see previous posting: GATOR HOLE (5), but when it comes to performance (speed and power) he'll never be any more dangerous than he is now, just longer and heavier.

This specimen has staked his claim on a sand bar at La Chua Sink in Paynes Prairie. A harem has gathered in the water behind him. Unfortunately, they can't be seen in this cropped image.

I was able to get reasonably close for this shot using the ZD 40-150, while still maintaining a reasonably safe distance. While I'd like to get closer I'm afraid I'll have to wait until next month for the release of the new ZD 70-300.

This image is SHQ (2560 x 1920), cropped 50% and then re-sized to its posted size (so it would not exceed the 500-kb limit). The 50% crop had minimal negative effect on the image quality; however, the IQ of the final image is diminished quite a bit by the final re-sizing step. Hopefully, within the next month the 50% cropping won't be necessary to enter the danger zone.

Thanks for looking!

-leon