But as we saw last night at Walt Disney World, accidents happen. For those who haven't yet heard the news, an alligator attacked a two-year-old boy who was playing at the edge of the water of the Seven Seas Lagoon, next to Disney's Grand Floridian Resort. The boy's father went into the water to try to wrestle the child from the gator, but failed. The search continues this morning for the boy's body. (Update: The boy's body has been recovered and identified. See link above.)
The family who lost their child last night was from Nebraska. I've lived in Omaha and in Orlando and never once did I think that anything potentially fatal was lurking under the surface of any pond, lake, or stream in Nebraska. But Florida is different. Most people who live in Central Florida understand you just ought to assume that any body of water large enough to hold a gator actually has a gator in it. Yet visitors from up north don't know that. Disney posts signs around the Seven Seas Lagoon prohibiting swimming in the lake, but the warning signs don't mention gators or wildlife. Visitors who assume the warning is just Disney's attempt to escape liability for drownings due so at grave risk they don't know they're taking.
So to our list of theme park safety tips, let's add this: Respect the local wildlife.
Step one toward doing that is acknowledging that you don't know about the local wildlife. Don't assume that the woods, water, fields, beach, or desert in the place you are visiting are the same as yours at home. Vacation destinations can help by posting warning signs or distributing information at check-in about the local wildlife and the risks associated with them. I just returned from a visit to Yellowstone National Park, and believe me, the park officials there were aggressive in warning people about the wildlife in the park. Travelers need hosts in all other vacation destinations with local wildlife to be just as aggressive about informing their guests, too.
This isn't just for the protection of visitors. A week before my visit to Yellowstone, a clueless family loaded a baby bison into the back of their car because they feared it was getting too cold. Rangers eventually had to put down the bison calf after its herd rejected it.
Respecting wildlife means understanding that these animals are wild. They are not pets and should not be treated as domesticated animals. So keep your distance. Do not approach or try to interact with the animals. If a wild animal approaches you, you need to know the correct response to avoid provoking the animal to attack, then as best you can, try to move away to give the animal the space it deserves. Remember that federal law protects many species of wild animals and prohibits contact with them.
Respecting wildlife also means that you should never attempt to feed them. It sickened me to read in the Orlando Sentinel's report that some Disney guests have been feeding the wild alligators o property. This is beyond stupid. Feeding animals conditions them to seek contact with human beings, with potentially disastrous results.
Feeding wild alligators is against the law in Florida [PDF link]. We'd love to see Disney start backing this up by ejecting and permanently banning from its property any guests found to be feeding alligators on Walt Disney World property, as well.
Last night's tragedy exposed that too few visitors to Central Florida know the risks associated with local wildlife. It's not the fault of this family, who have suffered an unimaginable loss. No one told them.
So we're telling you now. Spread the word. For your safety — as well as the safety of wild animals — respect the local wildlife in all of your travels.
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The other thing that has always stuck with me and applies to any place that you visit is the following bit of advice.
There are places in the town or city that you live in that
you wouldn't visit after dark, why would go to those areas
in a strange city.
I never took this to be an indication that Orlando had "dangerous" areas of town, all communities do but that you need to be aware and enjoy yourself.
Disney should definitely make people aware of dangerous wildlife even though, as I understand it, they try very hard to keep the gators out of guest areas. The family should not have allowed a two-year-old to play in water where signs prohibited it. Disney should have also probably expected this to happen when they hosted "movie night on the beach" - knowing full well how guests let their guards down and always assume safety at Disney World. Personally, when visiting our condo in the Tampa area, I am always mindful of keeping away from the edge of the ponds and lakes in our development, especially when walking at dusk/night because of alligators and even snakes. But that having been said, I never actually considered that the "no swimming" signs on the Seven Seas Lagoon were in part due to wildlife and not, as you said, just a way to avoid liability for accidental drownings.
Everyone is somewhat at fault and really no one is at fault at all. Policies will need to change now and it's just so incredibly tragic that a child had to lose his life to open our eyes to what needs to be done.
To the saga, add that it was after 9pm - letting children wade or do anything in the water when dark is not a good idea.
In addition to the risk of the gators and snakes, there is the problem of N. Fowleri, a "brain-eating" amoeba found in warm untreated fresh water in Florida and some other states. If someone manages to get it up their nose (which little kids are more likely to do than adults), you are in deep trouble - less than 5% of the folks who get infected survive.
And if you think warning folks really makes a difference, our community here in FL has lots of signs warning people to stay away from gators. We still have people trying to get close so they can take a photo. Every so often, there are news stories about peoples pets being eaten while playing along the shore of ponds. People bring their grandkids down to the lake to (illegally) feed gators. Others insist in sticking hands into ponds to try to find golf balls, having been told to never ever do that.
When I lived in Juneau, tourists would actually chase bears to try to get a picture hugging the bear. Locals referred to this as the "Disneyland North Syndrome" - folks become convinced that because tourists come and because they have seem movies making wild creatures look so cute and adorable, they can treat them like pets.
Was the alligator-removal budget cut when Disney cut the parks' budgets?
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