Alligator panic has hit Florida after the deaths of two people and the discovery of a third apparent victim last month. Fear has set in, even though statistically you’re more likely to win the lottery or be struck by lightning than killed by an alligator, according to University of Florida zoology professor Kent Vliet, the L.A. Times reports.
“I’m getting well over 100 complaints a week. I’m getting duplicate, triplicate, quadruplicate calls on the same alligator,” said Todd Hardwick, the trapper called out for nuisance kills in busy Miami-Dade County.
1 million: Number of alligators in Florida, found in every one of its 67 counties.
351: Number of alligator attacks on humans since government researchers began keeping statistics 58 years ago.
20: Number of fatalities among those 351 attacks.
200: Calls a day from Florida residents to the state’s Nuisance Alligator Program hot line since the deaths were reported.
