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A lightning-fast, alligator lunged at him out of the shallow water as the Tavares, Florida man raked weeds from the edge of a canal in the rear of his home

By Anthony Colarossi

SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

TAVARES, Fl.(July 24, 2001) - Ralph Othus just wasn't ready to become "gator bait". The 78-year-old retired insurance company manager said he was raking weeds from the canal behind his manufactured home Monday morning when he was approached by a fast-moving, 10- or 12-foot long alligator.

"If you have ever seen one move, they are like lightning," said Othus, who has lived in the Imperial Terrace community for 21 years.

Othus had seen the gator before. He says the bull has been basking in the waters near his home for the past couple of months. But he never figured the massive reptile would be so brazen as to attack a human - and lunge forward on land, no less.

If not for his rake, Othus might not be around to talk about the experience. The gator was clearly in "attack mode" when it lunged toward him from the shallow water, jaws agape."The only thing I could do was stick the rake in his mouth," Othus commented. "I happened to be in the right position with the rake at the time."

Even after dropping the rake and scampering backwards the alligator did not retreat an inch.

The attack happend at 8:30 a.m. behind his Vindale Road residence, inside a mobile home community with 280 homes, linked by small waterways to the Dora Canal. Apparently sharing the canal with local boaters and fishermen is one huge gator.

"They feed, they feed on fish," Othus said. "They apparently are living quite well in this canal. This is a big one and obviously has no respect for humans. A smaller gator would not have done this".

Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission considered Othus' report an "emergency complaint" and dispatched a trapper to the scene Monday morning, according to commission spokeswoman Joy Hill.

Othus said the trapper hung a slab of "ugly-looking meat" with a terrible odor from his boat dock. Alligators have a taste for beef lungs. The organs are often used to bait the beasts.

But, by Monday evening, the state-permitted trapper had not caught Othus' nuisance alligator, which may weigh 400 pounds or more.

"If Othus' account is accurate", Hill said. "The alligator must be trapped and 'harvested'. That's, not typical behavior, to be grabbing a rake. A 10- or 11-foot gator can easily kill a human. If that gator is exhibiting that kind of behavior, then it's dangerous," she continued.

Alligators have a natural fear of humans, however, they become less fearful when people start feeding them table scraps or leftovers. Hill said it is illegal and unwise to feed the. alligators. "It's like a dog or a cat," she said, "They get used to food, and they start looking for handouts".

Technically, Othus' encounter with this alligator is not an attack. State wildlife officials define attacks as only those in which a human is bitten and injured. Since 1948, Florida has had 289 documented alligator attacks, of those 11 were fatal.

Othus was riot injured during his encounter Monday morning - just shocked. Nuisance gator complaints are far more frequent. Hill said her office in Ocala can receive 40 or 50 complaints day for nuisance alligators causing problems for residents in the 14-county area the office covers. The concern is greatest between March and late September, during the warmer weather when gators are most active.

When you combine an active alligator season with a particular large specimen that is not frightened of people Hill said, "It's the kind of thing that needs to be out of there."

REPORT OF ATTACK ON RETIREE LEADS TO
BIG ALLIGATOR'S DEMISE

By ANTHONY COLAROSSI

SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

TAVARES (July 27, 2001) - It was either going to be Ralph Othus or the alligator. Two days after Othus, 78, says he used a rake to fend off a giant alligator, a state permitted trapper baited, hooked and destroyed a 12-foot-8. inch long alligator near the retiree's property.

The massive reptile took the bait at about I I p.m. Wednesday. Trapper Jimmy Douglas Sr. killed it a little while later, using a "bang stick" which sent a bullet-like projectile into the back of the gator's head, instantly killing the monster.

Douglas estimated the alligator's weight between- 575 and 600 pounds. "This is a real big gator, Douglas said. "You, don't find them much larger than this. The trapper and state Fish and Wildlife, Conservation officials did not know, the gator's age. "It's a big alligator, but there's nothing real special about it," according to Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The biggest alligator trapped in Florida was longer than 14 feet, Hill added..

The gator trapped near the Imperial Terrace community Wednesday was simply large and showing aggressive behavior, and therefore, had to be destroyed", Hill explained.

The trapper put out the bait Monday, after Othus said the alligator lunged toward him from the water. Othus then jammed a rake into the gator's mouth to protect himself.

"If not for the rake, Othus stated, he would have had me, and it would have been no contest. It was him or me. He's entitled to his space, and I'm entitled to my space. When I go down to rake my lawn, and he literally attacks me, now I can't live with that anymore," he exclaimed..

Othus said the alligator that Douglas trapped was even larger than he thought it was during the initial encounter. It took several men to carry the reptile from the shore. "I didn't realize how lucky I was," Othus exclaimed. "I knew it was big, but, I didn't know it was that big!!"