Most Dangerous Gator And Crocodile-Infested Waters In The US

Hungry and fierce creatures have lurked in aquatic depths since complex life began on this planet. While few creatures are capable of turning a man into a meal in the United States, these ancient reptiles, armored from snout to tail, with jaws capable of crushing bones and teeth designed for tearing flesh, are among these few creatures. And while it may surprise some, alligators and crocodiles are more widespread in the U.S. than many believe. Crocodilians inhabit waters in the warm southern regions of the country. The American alligator belongs to territories ranging from Texas to the Carolinas and has a living population numbering in the millions. American crocodiles are less common, with a population of around 2,000 crocs living solely in South Florida and the Florida Keys. 

You can most easily distinguish a gator by its rounded snout or a croc by its V-shaped muzzle. There are differences in color and temperament as well, as American crocodiles tend to be more aggressive. However, you probably won't care about differences or similarities when you see their ancient eyes break the water's surface of your favorite swimming hole. If this is a scenario you'd rather avoid, you may want to stay dry around these alligator and crocodile-infested waters in the U.S.

Saltwater crocodiles have been known to make life a little hectic in Key Largo and the other Florida Keys from time to time. The trouble they've caused has prompted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to look into ways to deter them from residential waters over the past couple of decades, the Miami Herald explains. After a camouflaged croc snatched a large dog from the edge of a canal in Key Largo in 2012, the state realized they had to make a choice: Do they terminate crocodiles that venture too close to urban areas or find another way to deal with them? Ultimately, they decided to hire trappers to use loud sounds and other methods in an attempt to drive the crocs from residential areas.

However, it doesn't seem like these non-lethal methods lowered the local crocodile population as the officials had hoped, as flood waters of Hurricane Ian turned areas of Key Largo into a reptilian nightmare. According to Keys Weekly, crocs invaded the newly flooded areas and could be seen swimming down the streets of neighborhoods like Stillwright Point. If you're deciding on a time of year to visit the Florida Keys, you may want to plan a trip outside of hurricane season — due to wind, rain, and street gators.

American alligators, having evolved accustomed to warmer climates, don't usually venture into places with real winters. This is why Oklahoma has a very limited gator population, with less than a few hundred nearly all residing in the southernmost part of Oklahoma, practically hugging the Texas border in the wetlands of the Red Slough and Little River areas. Now, there aren't many (if any) recorded gator attacks in Oklahoma, but it isn't the reptile's aggressive nature that makes these areas particularly dangerous. Instead, it's the fact that gators become exponentially more perilous when you don't know they're lurking in the water. Not everyone realizes that gators live in Oklahoma. Let alone that they live there all year round, rain or snow.

Southern Oklahoma sees more freezing days than the Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts, and you'd think frozen wetlands would deter cold-blooded alligators, but they don't. As The Oklahoman points out, when the Red Slough Wildlife Management area and other gator-infested Oklahoma waters freeze over, alligators snorkel through the ice with their snouts and fall into a state of near-hibernation. This allows them to survive the colder weather you may believe keeps you safe from these prehistoric hunters.

Right next to Lake Maurepas, touching the northern edge of New Orleans with its southern banks, is Lake Pontchartrain. Compared to Maurepas, Pontchartrain is a rather large lake, and like its neighbor, it's both bustling with visitors and infested with alligators — alligators proven to be dangerous more than once.

According to Fox 8, John Lopez of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation admitted that the gators might pose risks to visitors after a 12-year-old boy was attacked while spearfishing with his father. The encounter resulted in a fairly serious leg injury, but he faired much better than a man attacked in 2021, who lost his life in the lake's flood waters after Hurricane Ida. The conditions were out of the ordinary in the latter case, but it highlights how dangerous these creatures can be.

If alligators weren't enough of a risk to swimmers, Lake Pontchartrain is also home to young bull sharks believed to use the lake's brackish waters as a nursery playground, according to WGNO. Some of the sharks caught from the lake have been as long as a man, which doesn't bode well for visitors, since bull sharks are known for their aggression. With both sharks and gators, Lake Pontchartrain could easily be one of the U.S.'s most dangerous lakes. 

Caddo Lake rests on the border of Louisiana and Texas, and the gators of Caddo Lake can swim freely between states. Presumably, since everything's bigger in Texas, some of Caddo Lake's alligators have grown really big. In 2016, as reported by KSLA News 12, an East Texas family was hunting gators on a friend's property at Caddo Lake, a legal sport requiring a special tag, when they came across a behemoth of a reptile. They bagged the gator on the bank, and the sheer size of the beast caused a local stir. The reptile would turn out to be over 13 feet long and weigh around 900 pounds.

Though there haven't been any reported attacks on people by the Caddo Lake gators, the animals still pose a potential risk to visitors in the water or walking the bank. Or, as it turns out, waiting patiently in their car. According to the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office's official Facebook page, a Caddo Parish deputy sheriff was sitting and waiting for animal control to arrive when an angsty gator made a mess of his bumper before escaping back into the lake.

The thin, winding ribbon of water that makes up the Waccamaw River in southeastern North Carolina, which is home to around 1,000 gators, offers the perfect conditions for hiding and ambushing prey, as one kayaker discovered in the summer of 2020. As is made clear by the kayaker's self-shot video of the incident (via CNN), the water is murky and filled with fallen trees and limbs, a mix ideally suited to an alligator's predatory style. 

In the video, Peter Joyce (the kayaker) can be seen paddling leisurely down the river when a nearly invisible gator shoots towards him like a torpedo and topples his kayak. Luckily, Joyce was able to tip upright with ease and sustained no injuries. Gators aren't in the habit of attacking people in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, but the gators in The Tar Heel State can still pose a threat when provoked, when they associate humans with food from feeding, or when an aggressive female is nesting. 

Huntsville, located in the north of Alabama almost on the Tennessee border, has an odd population of gators. According to the city of Huntsville's animal services director (via Advance Local), the gators were allegedly brought into the area during the 1930s and '40s to control the beaver population. Since then, the growth of both the human community and the successfully established gators has led to more encounters near the Huntsville waterways. These encounters have now reached the point where the city has posted warning signs in areas near the Flint River.

Most recently, a supposedly massive gator killed a family dog mere feet from their house in Huntsville, according to WAFF 48. The outraged father has been pushing for the city to take action against the gators since his children were playing with the dog at the time of the attack. In fact, the father believed the gator was actively hunting his children when the dog was taken instead.