Nocatee residents wary after 8-foot alligator spotted in neighborhood

A Nocatee woman is warning her neighbors after an 8-foot gator in the pond that’s in their backyards swam straight for her dog.

She said she let her dog out in her backyard on Thursday, and he ran to the bank of the pond.

“I saw a gator about 15 feet off the the bank. Its nose and eyes were only showing, but then I saw it sinking down and I knew that it was headed toward the bank. So I ran down and grabbed my dog,” she said.

“That terrifies me. And then there’s no gate to where they can’t just come up on your yard,” said her neighbor, Dawn Craig.

Craig said another gator was pulled out of the same pond a few years ago.

Lately, she and her neighbors noticed all the baby ducks have disappeared.

“I bring my little granddaughter out to see the ducks and she asked me where the ducks were, and I didn’t know,” said Craig.

The Willowcove neighborhood’s managing company called Florida Fish and Wildlife’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program on Thursday.

On Friday, FWC issued a permit for a trapper to put the gator down.

“We do live in Florida and there are gators. We live in a neighborhood, though, with dogs and children. So I think any of the larger gators that we see, probably over the 4-foot rule, we need to probably contact SNAP and let them come out and do their job,” said the woman who saw the gator.

FWC does not remove and relocate alligators that big because they usually try to return to their capture sites, causing more danger along the way.

If you see a gator larger than 4 feet in an area where you think it might be a threat, you can call the SNAP hotline: 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286).

Cox Media Group