Alligators are awesome

I was doing a baby shower for the Florida Wildlife Hospital and Sue told one of the ecologists at the facility that I was sad I didn't get to see any alligators on the drive in (I did the year before). The woman said that they had a research team out at the moment tagging alligators and asked if I would like to join them (YES!!!). So I got to go out with the research team who used a fishing pole to hook an alligator near the edge of a pond and pull it in close enough that they could get a noose around it's mouth. When they got it on land it rolled a bunch of times trying to get away. The team was worried that the alligator might have been fed by employees near the pond because he seemed abnormally aggressive. He was biting at the hook that they were trying to catch him with and while he was on land he was feisty. I got to help hold the rope tight while they duct taped its mouth shut. After they took a blood sample and measurements they let me sit on it and restrain it while they took the scute sample. So much fun! The alligator was 9 feet 2 inches long. Unfortunately, my camera picked that time to slightly malfunction so my pictures have black in the corners from the shutter not fully opening and I can't post the photos because I'm not officially part of the research team. There were a number of people watching us tag and measure the alligator and one woman remarked how everyone was talking about me and how it was funny to see such a small woman on such a big alligator. The woman happened to be a friend of Dea's and she posted a picture of me on the alligator but it's from far away. It was funny that before I even got back from the trip there were already pictures posted of it.