Spike (the name we gave him), is a young alligator that has been hanging around our area in the Cocoplum Canal for some time now. He is a curious little guy and responds to our voices, unlike other larger alligators in the canal who are much more aloof. The other gators that we see usually only pass by as they swim down the middle of the canal and go right by our dock. We have seen some gators in the past catch fish near us, but then they move on and we probably never see them again. It would be helpful if they wore name tags. but no one will volunteer to slap them on!
Spike has climbed up on our platform a couple of times that we know about, and we have the video and pictures here to prove it, but in the time that we have been at this house we have not seen another gator do this. We don’t see him every day, as his visits are sporadic, but it is a treat for us when he comes by.
The short video below shows one of his visits, swimming from the other side of the canal to our dock:
He will come up below our sitting area and give us the “stare down” as shown in the video. He can stare us down like this for quite a while, he doesn’t seem to get bored with it.
One time he decided to climb up on the platform, but he didn’t stay there long:
It is hard to say how long he is, but he appears to look larger when he is up out of the water. We are also not sure how wide his range is, because there are times where we won’t see him for almost a week, but eventually he always comes back.
We always know when it is him by his behavior, no other alligator that we have seen so far behaves the way that he does, just hanging out with the humans. Hopefully he will continue to come around for a while, but I’m not so sure I’ll want to see him like this when he gets bigger in years to come. Maybe his personality will change as he matures into the aloofness that the others exhibit, time will tell. I will provide updates on him in the future. Alligators are such a throwback to the age of dinosaurs, they’re truly amazing to watch.
Prior to publishing this article, one morning I was sitting where I usually do by the water, and I discovered that there were two different Spikes! They were just about the same size, and they were both hanging out near the platform. It is very difficult to tell which alligator is the original Spike, they look so similar. One of the little gators appears to have a bulkier look to him, and I think that this is the imposter, but I’m not positive. Sandy isn’t sure either, so we will have to see how this goes. They are not being aggressive towards one another, but the alligator with the broad head seems to be the dominate one from what I can tell. They do give each other space, and if one appears to come too close, the other will swim away.
As an update, we think that Spike is slightly larger and the more dominant of the two, but it’s close. The other one is a little lighter and slimmer and we named her Blondie. Her? Him? Who knows! The do snap at each other, but it’s more like posturing than anything else.
Could Spike and his buddy be cast offs from someone’s fish tank? I met a guy in the pet store and he had a baby alligator. We’re in Pennsylvania! Maybe that’s why they respond to voices. Just a thought.
I suppose that this could be possible. We have a strain of catfish here that are invasive, and supposedly they came from people’s fish tanks. There are plenty of alligators in the Cocoplum canal though, so most likely they are offspring of other alligators from the canal.