My Alligator Buddies
 

So, I live in Florida which means I live with alligators. They're everywhere, including in the pair of ponds I walk past a couple times a day when I take walks on break at work. This set of pictures is some of the residents of those ponds.

Going backwards in time, we have this guy who is a very recent transplant to the smaller of the two ponds. He replaced the mother of the baby gators that will be seen later. Handsome devil, this one. Probably close to 6 feet long.
http://techquarium.com/gallery2z/d/30384-2/DSC_9627.JPG

I can't decide if I like that picture (above) better or this one. Tell me what you think.
http://techquarium.com/gallery2z/d/30389-2/DSC_9631.JPG

The gators that live around people get pretty nonchalant.
http://techquarium.com/gallery2z/d/30404-2/DSC_9641.JPG

Momma gator.
http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/d...2/DSC_2518.JPG

She had a whole bunch of babies and for a couple years I saw them all over the place.
http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/d...2/DSC_2513.JPG

The were adorable.
http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/d.../DSC_2078c.jpg

One last picture of momma. I like this shot a lot.
http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/d...2/DSC_1842.JPG

These pictures pre-date my good camera, but here are the babies when we first spotted them. We counted 14 at once.
http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/d...2/IMG_3167.jpg

Apparently alligator babies grow slowly. I last saw one of them a couple months ago and it was maybe 30 inches long and still had the yellow stripes. They'll be approaching 3 years old soon.
http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/d...2/IMG_3175.jpg

I have no way of knowing, but in my imagination this is the baby daddy. He lived in the other pond, but has since been replaced by a pair of smaller alligators.
http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/d...2/DSC_0375.jpg

Parting shot.
http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/d...2/DSC_7704.JPG

Cool!

I like #2 better.
My eye keeps getting drawn to the line of green above the gator in the first pic.

My favorites are the momma gator and the last picture.

Very nice.

I used to live in a big neighborhood where right in the middle was an expansive park with a lake in the center of it all. I would go down there to feed the ducks, and every once in a while, I would catch a glimpse of a few small gators moseying around in them waters. It was cool and disheartening at the same time for an eight-year-old boy. Never saw their mama, though.

Thought not to waste this
http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/3664/cropig.jpg