# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Livestock and Animal Husbandry >  Pulling gator duty

## rebel

On the watch for snakes and gators while the boys have their r & r.309FADB2-CF53-48A1-B137-8180C85BB379.jpg

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## nell67

They look like they are having fun. Do you eat the gator if you must defend your boys?? I love gator meat, breaded and deep fried tastes just like pork chop bites. yummm.

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## rebel

I like gator bites too. So, yes. I would.

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## Rick

That is so wrong in so many ways. Just sayin'.....

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## nell67

> That is so wrong in so many ways. Just sayin'.....


Wut?? You never ate gator before?? You're missing out.

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## crashdive123

Gator is great.  And.................It is much better to eat gator than to be eaten by gator.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

I have a friend who had a place down on San Antonio Bay.  They would get 8 alligator permits each year and take out paying customers.  If they didn't sell all the tags we'd catch the rest ourselves.  I've got a picture someplace of He and his brother holding a 12 footer on the front of my boat.  I'll see if I can find the pics. He'd load the gators in a pickup and buy all the ice at the local store and head to Anahuac where he could sell them.

Anyway, my understanding is that the tail is the only part of the alligator that is worth eating.  I have eaten it twice and I'll have to say that it is one of the few foods that I do not find appealing.  In fact I didn't like it at all.  A lot of people do.  The Texas coast is loaded with alligators, so much so that they are becoming a nuisance.  Well, they've actually been a nuisance for some time now.  

I'm really surprised that we haven't had incidences of attacks on people.  There are some really big alligators in the marshes and lakes around here, and they are not particularly afraid of humans....


Alan

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

The only reptile I have found that I liked eating is turtle, and then only in turtle soup...

I had some rattlesnake once and I didn't like it enough to eat another piece.

Now, crustaceans?  Oh Yeah!  I will eat crustaceans!   

Alan

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## Rick

Yes, I've eaten gator. Those dogs in the water and having to guard them....just plain wrong. I don't mind eating most things. I do have an aversion to most things eating me.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

From what I've seen, the best way to get an alligator to come to you is to have a dog splashing in the water.  Extra effective if they are barking.  I was fishing once and a big alligator, probably a 10+ footer came out from the bank and starting swimming along in front of my boat.  Two ladies and two kids and a dog came down from one of the houses about 300 yards ahead of me and started playing in the water.  The kids were in an inflatable floaty thingy. The gator kept swimming in front of the boat.  When I got close the dog started barking at me and the gator immediately picked up speed and headed straight for them.  I started yelling for the women to get the kids out of the water because a "Big Alligator" was coming toward them.  They responded by wading out into the water to look for the dang thing.  I'm yelling really loud not to get the kids out of the water!  A guy comes barreling down the bank calling them everything but "Sweetheart" and grabs the kids out of the water.  I had put the trolling motor on full and was hitting the gator with a spinner bait trying to distract him.  He was "zeroed" in on that dog, which was stillllllllll barking.... The kids got out of the water and the gator finally got tired of the spinner bait hitting him and he thrashed off into deep water.  The dog continued to bark.  

Will a gator eat a dog? Yes.  Will a gator grab a child? Yes, even at Disney Land.  Will a gator kill a grown human? Yes, and they are doing it more frequently.  They are a giant lizard and they don't get to me 12 or 13 feet long on a vegan diet.  

Alan

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## rebel

Well, I was at my pond. While I know it well and no gator sign, I cant be sure if one moved in overnight. That old dirty-30 lives on that machine. I like its size, weight and capability for hiking in the woods. JIC I run into momma hog.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

Some years ago, my oldest son lived and worked on a big ranch over south of San Antonio and north of Choke Canyon Res.  The Atascosa river ran right through there  with lot of swampy areas.  The place was loaded with hogs and alligators.  He had around 30 hog dogs at that time and hunted them every night for about two years (young men can do things like that).  Alligator encounters were very regular with lots of barking dogs, squealing pigs and blood in the water.  The ranch owner encouraged the reduction in hog numbers.  The alligators ate very well during that time.  There was also great incentive to "Keep Moving".  I went with him a couple of times and it was unnerving to keep a light looking around for gators coming to the melee while the hog was killed and the dogs were dragged off the dead hog, and then on to the next one.  He'd kill 8 or 10 a night and did not dent the population. 

Choke Canyon has lots of big Alligators and great duck hunting.  Duck season is still pretty warm in South Texas and all the gators are still out and hungry as ever.

About 40 years ago a guy on horseback was out checking fence on a ranch north of Freer, TX.  There's a stock pond about every 10 miles and it's a pretty dry area of Texas.  He was riding along a cattle trail and came up on a large alligator out strolling through the brush.  He did what any good South Texas cowboy would do and roped it and drug it back to camp.  

It made the news.  I'm not sure what happened to the gator.


Alan

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## Rick

A long time ago I made myself a pledge that I would never live in any place that contained "stuff" that would bite you, burn you or sting you. That includes just about any state south of US 40 and the way things are looking, I might have to move that boundary north a smidge. "Out West" don't count. I ain't about to go out there.

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## rebel

Polar bears in the north. I guess youll need to keep going all the way south.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

I'll take alligators over most any kind of bear any day of the week...

Alan

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

I guess the most dangerous thing in Indiana is Mary Jane....

She grew up in an Indiana town,
Had a good-lookin' mama who never was around.
But she grew up tall and she grew up right
With them Indiana boys on them Indiana nights. - TP






Alan

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