Tour guides used to feed the gators chicken so they'd come close enough for the tourists to get a good look. The problem was this taught the gators that people mean food so they would attack boats, swimmers, small children. For obvious reasons it's now illegal to feed the gators (in the US).
When we were in Alabama in May visiting Dave's Family there was a news story about an alligator that had been killed because it went after some kids (the kids were unharmed). It had been in the area for a while and people had been feeding it. This was just a couple miles from my Sister in Law's (T) house. I have a niece and nephew I'd very much prefer not get eaten.
A day or two latter Dave and I went to an area where Alligators are often found. We almost immediately spotted this guy.
He also spotted us standing on the bridge that went over this little creek. He (or possibly She) swam immediately over to us looked up and opened his mouth. Clearly people had been feeding this one too.
In all the times I've been to Alabama I'd never seen an Alligator (I still haven't seen an Armadillo) until that day. It makes me very angry that this one has probably also been killed by now. I don't know if I can explain how impressive it was to see this amazing animal in the wild.
There's a saying I heard on this trip, "A fed gator's a dead gator". Feeding them endangers any other people they come across and ensures the animal will be killed.
If you live in or visit an area that has gators don't feed them and if you see someone doing so report them. And if you want to see them up close may I suggest a telephoto lens because we were no ware near as close as this picture suggests.
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