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The three crocodiles that have become the mascots of a South Florida neighborhood got unwanted attention when someone reported them as a threat. Television crews and wildlife officers converged on the Watermark Condominiums in Dania Beach north of Miami, the Miami Herald reported.
They did not realize that the largest and oldest of the crocs has been living in the complex's lake for several years, while the other two joined it after Hurricane Wilma.
Florida is the only place in the world that is home to both crocodiles and alligators, two species many people confuse. The American crocodile is much rarer than its distant cousin and its range is confined to Florida's
southern tip with only about 1,000 in the state.
Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the three at the Watermark appear to pose no threat to anyone. "'All they want to do is be left alone, sun and swim," Pino said. "At this point, all we have is crocodiles being crocodiles."
3 crocodiles get 15 minutes of fame
Whether hunting is right or wrong, a spiritual experience, or an outlet for the killer instinct, one thing it is not is a sport. Sport is when individuals or teams compete against each other under equal circumstances to determine who is better at a given game or endeavor. Hunting will be a sport when deer, elk, bears, and ducks are... given 12-gauge shotguns. Bet we'd see a lot fewer drunk yahoos (live ones, anyway) in the woods if that happened.
~R. Lerner, letter, Sierra, March-April 1991
The distance between an alligators eyes in inches, is directly proportional to the length of the alligator in feet
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