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Comment by jordan0day | Hacker News Reader

I've never lived near alligators, but my guess is that the father had, and had a decent understanding about the level of risk involved.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_alligator_attacks...

There had been a grand total of 4 fatal alligator attacks in the USA in the 1980's. It seems to me that the father probably realized that there wasn't actually much danger involved for his boys.

And I think your proposed scenario

> Would it be equally character-building to make them run across a freeway to find a dropped pair of sunglasses?

is a little disproportionate, risk-wise: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/809-456.pdf "Pedestrian fatalities from all crashes reached a low of 4,763 fatalities in 2000"

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Maybe most people have the intuition to avoid alligators, and much more people are around roadways than alligator areas. Either way it doesn't mean it isn't foolishy dangerous to get close to wild alligators.

> Either way it doesn't mean it isn't foolishy dangerous to get close to wild alligators.

You're absolutely right. But what is "close?" An alligator swimming right alongside the boat? Sure, that's definitely too close. But what about an alligator on the riverbank, 100 yards away? Is that still too close? How about half a mile downstream? Again, I've never lived near gators, so I don't have an intuition on what is and is not a dangerous situation.

Additionally, I feel like you're forgetting that oft-repeated (and generally true!) maxim: "They're more afraid of you than you are of them."

Maybe the father in the story was being outrageously irresponsible. My gut tells me (and the story seems to intimate) that he knew what he was doing. That is, he probably intuited that the situation was low-risk.

To use a different dangerous animal, people have been killed by grizzly bears, yet tens of hundreds of thousands of folks annually camp out in the backcountry. Are they being irresponsible, just because their is a risk involved?

This guy seemed to think it was fine to boat through a 100 or so of 'em. Not sure I'd have done it, but he came through fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn-JNkpG89U

I have been to the Okefenokee, and canoed and camped there. The gators are intimidating, but they really never did seem aggressive at all. They're literally all over, and at the visitor center area they can be quite close to the tourists, with no barriers. I was a lot more worried about snakes, really.

Having said all that, I wouldn't put a kid in the water near one I could see. Why risk it? Rumored giant catfish, though, sure, why not? ;-)

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