‘It’s our behavior’: Study suggests alligator bites might be our fault

By Rachael Perry

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    Florida (WPBF) — A new study suggests risky human behavior, not aggression by alligators, is the leading cause of alligator bites.

The study comes from scientists at the University of Florida and Centre College in Kentucky, who used data from recorded bites to develop a ranking system that categorizes human actions immediately before an alligator encounter.

Their research found that in 96% of recorded incidents, some form of human inattention or risk-taking preceded the attack.

WPBF 25 News spoke with Frank Mazzotti, who is a wildlife ecology professor at the University of Florida and one of the authors of the study.

“It confirms what especially alligator biologists and alligator managers already knew, but it had never been quantified before, and that is simply that it’s human behavior that results in alligator bites. It’s not so much aggressive alligators,” he said.

WPBF has covered several alligator bites, some fatal, over the years. One of those happened in Fort Pierce in 2023, where an 85-year-old woman was killed by an alligator while walking her dog.

Just a few months later, in May of 2024, a farmer survived after an alligator bit his leg. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said the incident happened at a local farm along SW 96th Street in Palm City.

Alligators don’t want to eat us

Mazzotti said alligators don’t want to eat humans, but they are often provoked.

“They don’t want to attack you. They, by and large, have no intentions towards people at all, but it’s our behavior that provokes alligators to bite,” Mazzotti said.

He said the idea for the study came from his co-author, who was studying snakes at the time.

“He’d noticed a very similar pattern between humans and snakes, and that is, people think snakes are out to get them, and they’re not. He thought it was probably very, very similar with alligators. So that was kind of the origin of the study,” he explained.

They used several different sources of information and combined them to create a database covering the alligator attacks.

“We primarily used the Crocattack database, which is done by Brandon Sideleau, who is now in Australia, which is a fantastic compilation. Then we supplemented that by contacting individual experts and state agencies. For example, in Florida, they have a record of alligator attacks going back to 1948,” he said.

Mazzotti said they then used the data from over the years to quantify the risk that may have led to an alligator bite and categorized risk from non-risk, low-risk, moderate-risk or high-risk based on human behavior.

“No. 1 on my list is walking your pet by the water. That’s like waving a barbecued rib underneath the nose of your neighbor. What do you expect is going to happen?” Mazzotti said.

No. 2 is swimming where alligators are present, knowingly and unknowingly.

“We’ve been thinking about that a lot, and it’s easy to blame people for that behavior, but I think really most people, especially given the prevalence of new residents in Florida, don’t understand the risk that they’re taking. They know there’s alligators in Florida, but not in my backyard. Whereas the truth is any time you see a body of water in Florida, it could have an alligator in it,” Mazzotti added.

Mazzotti said swimming is high-risk if you know that alligators are present, while swimming where you don’t know they’re present is moderately risky.

He said another common theme was people messing with alligators while they were under the influence.

“One of the, for example, a high risk behavior, which you wouldn’t think would be too common, but it’s all too common, is people playing with alligators while they’re under the influence or putting themselves at risk while they’re under the influence, kind of the hold my beer situation,” he said.

When alligators are most on edge

He said most of the time, alligators can’t be bothered, but they are more territorial when it’s mating season, like it is now.

“Alligators are not on most of the time, and by on, I mean ready to feed, ready to fight, ready to find a mate. Most of the times alligators are off, they’re just sitting there basking and all kinds of things can happen in front of them that they’re not going to react to,” he said.

However, when they’re “on,” Mazzotti said they can be extremely territorial of their surroundings and more on edge.

“In many instances, many ponds and lakes, male alligators set up territories and defend those territories against other alligators. So testosterone is high, aggression is high, responding to intruders. They’re on high alert. They’re on and so if something floats into their territory, that’s low to the water, green or a dark color, they’re going to respond to it,” he explained.

He said in those cases, typically it’s a bite and release once they realize it’s not something they need to worry about, they let go.

Escaping an alligator attack

However, Mazzotti said if an alligator chases after you, you should run as fast as you can in a straight line.

“This zigzagging back and forth stuff is nonsense, it just keeps you in an alligator’s territory longer and keeps it interested in you longer. Run away in a fast time. They’re very fast over a short distance, but they have a limited capacity to metabolize with oxygen, so they get tired very quickly. So 15 feet, 20 feet, it’s going to quit,” Mazzotti said.

If you can’t get away in time and it bites you, Mazzotti said your best bet is to fight.

“If it’s got you, do everything you can. Poke it in the eye, make it gag, do everything that you can to get it to let go. The way I describe it is fight as if your life depends upon it because it does,” he added.

Overall takeaway

Mazzotti said the overall message of the study appears to be that most bites are preventable and that people should be aware of their surroundings.

“I think most people that go to natural areas simply aren’t. Then the other thing is we need to kind of rethink about how we’re educating people about alligators. We need to reach out to new residents, which I think should be a major target audience in areas where they live,” he said.

He said that includes using homeowner associations and social media to reach people who don’t think they’re near alligators or that they aren’t a threat.

“Simply make them aware. If you for sure want to walk your dog next to the water after you learn this, keep it on a leash,” he said.

While Mazzotti said there are several ways to prevent bites, he feels some are more likely to work than others. “I don’t think there’s much hope at getting people to stop drinking beer and chasing gators,” he joked.

The full study can be found published in the journal Human—Wildlife Interactions.

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