But it wasn't quite as easy as Harper had hoped. The gator, spooked by the trapper, descended into the murky waters. After a couple of hours, Hunter, who has caught about a dozen gators in recent weeks, decided to try again another day. Hunter came out, but the alligator eluded him. I'm kind of concerned about my kids going outside.
Alligator attacks are uncommon.
Between 1948 and 1999, there were 233 confirmed alligator attacks in Florida. Nine were fatal, and half of those involved children, according to Fish and Wildlife. Last summer, two Florida State University students received minor cuts, scrapes and punctures in a gator attack at Wakulla Springs. Hunter, himself bitten in the 1980s by a 5-foot gator that's now on display at the Museum of Florida History on South Bronough Street, said he never gets in the water while trapping a gator. I've seen how powerful they are, how sneaky they are.