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in about 60 days. It is not a good idea to come between little 'gators and their momma. Alligators have a fearsome reputation. I have watched one climb a bank on the Myakka River to capture prey, which it killed in one bite. Its 75 teeth are replaceable. It also can subdue a victim by drowning. Once driving through wetlands in south Florida, my friend, Iris, and I passed a prison with no barbed wire fencing. We speculated that officials must have figured inmates would not dare run the gauntlet of animals awaiting them in the swamp. Shorebirds do it all the time. Fishing along the banks of the Myakka they seem to know when it is safe — or not — to pass an alliga- tor. I have watched a great blue heron make a U turn when he got near one but, at other times, stroll right on past the creature's nose. Tuned into "alligator psychology" (as natu- ralist Archie Carr called it), these birds take advantage of frogs and other edibles stirred up by a swimming 'gator. "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, in the forests of the night; what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?" wrote the poet William Blake. The tiger may be formidable, but I wager he never looked an alligator in the eye. % Little ones stay at 'home' for up to two years. Sarasota News Leader March 28, 2014 Page 99