Beltane Waxing Dyan Moon
This southern gentleman showed up on my tour of Okefeenokee Swamp. He hissed and opened his mouth wide. (Does that mean he’s related to Jesse Helms?) After we moved past him, he moved to another patch of grass and rolled over on his side, happy at having driven away the intruders.
The gator is the moose and the wolf of the south. It shows up on license plates, as school mascots and in tourist ware like mugs and hot pads.
Chip, the crocodilian biologist who gave me the tour, said that the crocodilian’s basic survival strategy got put into place 30-40 million years ago and has not changed since. They hunt the shoreline and low water edges, relying on stealth and speed to catch birds, deer, fish.
The females (you cannot tell a female from a male without opening them up) lay a large number of eggs, guard their brood and hope for the best. It seems to work. Think of all that time.