The Myakka Gator

    This was most probably the largest gator in the wild that I have ever seen in my life... it was huge!

    The morning started out very early, before dawn to possibly capture yet another beautiful sunrise in this State Park near my home in Southwest Florida. The Park ... Myakka River State Park, located approximately 10 miles east of I-75 and Sarasota Florida on highway 72.

    A little history about this Park. In a scene reminiscent of what early Native Americans and Spanish explorers witnessed, arching palm trees and live oaks reflect on a winding tea-colored stream. The cries of limpkins, Souther Bald Eagle, Owls, and Osprey pierce the air while alligators and turtles sun lazily on logs and riverbanks. The Florida Whitetail Deer, Osceola Turkey, Florida Panther, and the Black Bear are some of the more prominent animals that can be found in the park. The Majestic Myakka River flows through 58 square miles of one of Florida's oldest and largest State Parks.

 

    The Myakka River, Florida’s first state-designated wild and scenic river, flows through a vast expanse of unspoiled wetlands, prairies, hammocks, and pinelands that make up the Myakka River State Park. Boating, fishing, canoeing, and kayaking are popular activities on the water while hikers and bicyclists explore miles of trails and backroads. Prior to 1850, the Myakka River was known as the Asternal River on English maps. A Seminole Indian reportedly told a surveyor in the 1850s that the name of the river was Myakka. The translation of the word Myakka is unknown.

    Between the 1850s and the 1930s, cattle grazed on the dry prairie, a vast land of grasses, forbs, palmetto, and other low shrubs with thousands of scattered wetlands. In 1910, Bertha Palmer, a progressive businesswoman from Chicago, came to Sarasota and bought a vast amount of land. A few years later, she purchased acreage farther inland than her initial real estate purchases and tried her hand at cattle and swine ranching. Meadow Sweet Pastures, as it was known, was located very near the Myakka River, where she introduced fencing and dip vats to Florida ranching. You can still visit the old foundations of the original house on Ranch House Road, located inside the park. Mrs. Palmer passed away in 1918.

    

    Shortly after, the Great Depression struck America, President Roosevelt signed into law the New Deal, a government program intended to boost the economy and spirit of the American population during those dark years. One program funded was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Over 17,000 acres of the Palmer estate were purchased by Florida to develop the Myakka River, State Park. Myakka is one of eight Florida State Parks developed by the CCC during the 1930s, and was formally dedicated in 1941, and was officially opened to the public. Many of the CCC structures built in Myakka are still used today, such as the visitor center, two picnic pavilions, five rental log cabins, roads, and trails.

    

    So it was the middle of March 06 while driving back to my camping trailer about mid-morning when I spotted something on the shore of the lake. March is low water time here, so the water line is quite a distance from the perimeter road that meanders around the southeastern part of the lake. I pulled over and got my binoculars to see what it was and to my amazement... it was a huge gator with a softshell turtle in its mouth. Not wanting to pass up this photo opportunity I quickly grabbed my wildlife camera setup and tripod and headed out the 300 yards to get closer to my subject. When I was about 100 yards away I set the tripod down just to observe the 10-12 foot gator with its prey. She was a big one for sure...the largest I have ever seen in the wild, and she was very busy tossing that turtle in the air and catching it to reposition it in her huge gaping mouth.

    I began moving forward very slowly, only a couple of feet at a time, as to not alarm this big girl, although she was very busy with her turtle. She would flip it up in the air and catch it and crunch her jaws trying to disassemble the turtle so she could eat it. It was much too big to take down in one gulp, even though her mouth was cavernous.

I eased up a couple of feet several times to where I was as close as needed to be with a 400 mm lens to capture very close-up images. I was about 20 yards, which was probably much too close. Gators can outrun a human in the first 30 feet or so and I didn't want to test that theory this day. I knew that her morning meal was more important to her at this moment than also testing that same theory. I was happily capturing image after image shooting burst mode when she would toss that turtle in the air when out of the corner of my eye I saw a red blur.

I looked over to see this woman dressed in a full-length red dress and dress shoes out in this mucky shoreline walking past me with her tiny digital camera stuck out as far as her arms would go. She was so intent at looking at the back of that little camera that I knew for sure she had no idea how close she was getting to this gator. I stepped forward a couple of steps in time to grab her arm and pull her back. I said to her to move very slowly and get behind me. When I asked her what in the hell were you thinking? she said in a very heavy British accent, I was only trying to get a close up of that gator. I have never seen one before. Well, I gave her a very quick one minute lesson about gators in general and about this one in particular. I told her that if that gator had wanted to run you down and eat you, that there would be no way in hell that you would be able to escape those jaws.

The look I received from her was about priceless but I knew she obviously did not know that she was in that much danger that morning and her husband should have thanked me for saving her British life. The woman turned around and quickly left and I'm sure that she told her husband about the very rude American gentleman down there with his camera just didn't want me to get my photo of that gator. I hope she did get a least a couple of photos just to tell the tale of this horrible photographer in the USA to all of her British friends back home.

    I continued to capture more images for a bit and decided to leave that big girl to her turtle and left. I have had many memorable moments in the 15 years or so in photographing and camping in this State Park. Camping offered me the ability of early morning shooting before the front gates opened up at 8 AM. I have conducted many photo tours here and hopefully gave sufficient enough instructions in photography to enable many other photographers the possibility of obtaining wonderful images of landscapes and wildlife that I have been blessed with over my time there.