Quote Originally Posted by jthornton View Post
Very much in the wild, he was sunning on top of some floating plants and the guide just pulled up next to his tail and lifted it out of the water and a couple of brave people petted it.
Not a wise move in my estimation. About 15 years ago when I worked at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve oil storage site at Bayou Choctaw near Plaquemine, LA one morning there was a young alligator about 3' long on the lawn next to the office building. An operations shift foreman took a 6' long fiberglass pole, and as I watched and walked with him, he prodded the gator toward some water across a soon to be hot asphalt parking lot. Every once in awhile the gator got rather ticked off at having his tail touched and would flip around to snap at the pole. You could not see the 180° turn around that gator did it was so fast. I decided then and there one thing you should never do is close enough to a gator that he can turn around and bite you. It would not be a pretty sight!