Hurricane Irma Creature Feature: Yikes, Alligators; Swoon, Manatees

MELBOURNE, FL — As Hurricane Irma roars through Florida, a big, toothy alligator crawled into downtown Melbourne, where a fire department employee captured video of the reptile crossing the road. “There he goes,” the videographer can be heard saying. “I’m out of here.”

The alligator may have felt the same way, though exactly where it decided to get out of is as murky as the waters they swim in. It might have been a resident of one of Melbourne’s alligator farms and parks or perhaps it just strayed from a place like the the Viera Wetlands, a publicly managed area where alligators swim in their natural habitat.

Ferocious storms are known to dredge up menacing creatures like alligators that humans would prefer remain in their habitats.

Alligator seen in downtown Melbourne between Hurricane Irma-spawned storms (video by fire department employee) @Florida_Today @USATODAY pic.twitter.com/N3j81hENaT
— Rick Neale (@RickNeale1) September 10, 2017

But some of the displaced animals are pretty darned cute. Two Manatee County sheriff’s deputies rescued a pair of bulbous, whiskery manatees likely washed ashore in a storm surge Sunday. Stranded in receding waters, these large aquatic mammals known as sea cows are endangered, which is a big problem since manatees play a vital role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem given their insatiable appetite for seagrass.

Manatees don’t have natural predators but are endangered primarily because of loss of habitat and collisions with ocean vessels.

But back to the not-so-adorable alligators. One of the largest alligator farms in Florida, Gatorland in Orlando, reassured Floridians that its 2,000 alligators — some of them up to 18 feet long — wouldn’t be getting loose when Irma hit. Orlando is about 70 miles northwest of Melbourne, so it’s unlikely the errant alligator came from there.

“It ain’t our first rodeo,” Gatorland CEO Mark McHugh told the New York Post. “None of our animals are going anywhere … so if you see an alligator floating down the street outside your house, it ain’t ours — call the Florida Fish and Wildlife department.”

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McHugh said he doesn’t think the leaping alligators will go on the lam.

“These critters have been fighting hurricanes and big, old nasty storms for about 65 million years,” he told the New York Post. “They sink in the water, they just weather this out.”

Gatorland also has venomous snakes and boa constrictors, which have been put on lockdown in a secure building, as required by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. McHugh said a team will remain on site throughout the storm to make sure Gatorland’s wildlife stay put.

“Doubly, triply safe — none of our animals are getting out,” he said.

During Hurricane Harvey, there was some concern up to 350 alligators at a sanctuary near Beaumont, Texas, could escape. They, too, were confined behind certified fences, and the worry turned out to be for naught.

But some alligators — along with poisonous snakes and scary-looking flotillas of fire ants — did end up in places they shouldn’t have been in Harvey’s floods, though. They were just like humans, seeking higher ground in the fast-rising swamp.

A mosquito rests on the head of an alligator as it moves along floodwaters during Hurricane Harvey. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)