Judy Jackson welcomes wildlife in the pond behind her St.Johns County home, but not alligators, she said Tuesday.
“We came out one morning and I saw a head sticking up out of the water with the eyeballs,” Jackson said, describing of what she saw last spring.
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Jackson said she called a trapper immediately, worried about her dogs.
She explained, “They’re small, they’re just perfect alligator bait. They like to come up here and look in the pond and that’s all it would take.”
Her address is included in an interactive map showing where Florida’s nuisance alligators are located.
The map is controlled by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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The agency’s data shows the number of nuisance gators relocated in St.Johns County increased to 309 in 2018, up from an average of around 200 in previous years.
In 2018, FWC says, its Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program received 14,739 complains about nuisance gators, resulting in 8,139 being removed.
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Jackson has her own ideas about why the numbers in St.Johns County are up.
She said, “I think it has a lot to do with development.”
Click HERE for the link to the interactive nuisance alligator map.
Cox Media Group
