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Gavin McCaw
Professor Rochelle Johnson
FYS 110
27 November 2016
Thoughts on a Modern Day Dragon
The human brain works in ways that don’t always make sense, depositing ideas into our
heads that don’t agree with the reality in which we inhabit. Many other components contribute to
our understanding of the world, so it often requires some considerable effort to decode why the
result ends up being what it is. Such is the case with our collective decision that alligators are
something that we should be fearful of. Statistically, humans have very little to fear from
alligators, especially with cases of attacks far down in recent years. Yet, when one imagines a
confrontation with the beast, their mind procures an image that is truly terrifying, a massive
presence in the water whose mere existence makes a shiver run down the spine. Luckily, or not,
for those at the College of Idaho, they have the ability to witness the object of their fears
firsthand in the Orma J. Smith Museum. When they lay their eyes on the animal for the first
time, a common reaction is that of surprise. The short, gawky creature, not unlike a large, scaly
Dachshund, is seemingly incompatible with the horrific image looming in their mind’s eye. The
disparity comes from a large set of factors, some of which aren’t commonly thought of, that
influence our unconscious understanding of the natural world. Our imagination, building from its
base of biological knowledge with inputs from our culture, our history, and our own
psychological influences, leads to our fear, not of the alligator itself, but of our ingrained idea of
the alligator.
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The base for our imaginary reptilian creature lies in the basic biology of the animal itself,
as it is these physical components that are so exaggerated in our imagination. The alligator is a
reptile closely related to lizards, thus the general shape of the creature is very similar; however,
this particular reptile has many tools that give it complete control over its aquatic environment.
One of these is its large, paddle-like tail, which is uses to propel itself through the water
(Smithonian Institute). The tail’s unique shape and scale structuring that gives it its acceleration
and speed resembles that of a dinosaur more than any other type of reptile, helping give the
creature a very prehistoric feel. This feeling is only heightened by the alligator’s communication
style, unique among members of the crocodilia family, a set of guttural grunts and roars used to
attract mates (National Geographic). Alligators often live in close proximity to each other, and
the resulting multitudes of roars emanating from a late night swamp sounds like a tape pulled
straight from the Mesozoic Era. Another biological factor in the creature’s image is its
specifically colored body, composed in such a way that emphasizes camouflage. The greenish
coloring of the scales and the protruding plates on its back, known as osteoderms, allow it to
easily blend in to the murky waters it lives in (The Animal Spot). In such conditions, it is very
easy to confuse it with a floating log or another piece of debris, and even if its identity is known,
the size of the creature is nearly impossible to gauge for the observer. In stories about encounters
with alligators, the size often is exaggerated, not always for the benefit of the storyteller’s ego,
but sometimes because of genuine confusion regarding the actual specifications. Finally, the part
of the alligator that spawns the most fear is its teeth. Its jaws have many potential uses, from
simply consuming whole, small fish to ripping the flesh off of larger prey (Smithsonian
Institute). It is these teeth that wrap up the alligator’s potential for the stuff of nightmares. Its
known physical traits give a certain prehistoric quality to its appearance, yet its adept camouflage
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leaves many of the specifics up to the imagination of those who witness it in action. The alligator
has the build of a perfect, mysterious predator, and these features of the animal are what have
terrified its prey for millions of years.
The alligator’s prehistoric appearance that so contributes to the fear it generates is based
off of its incredible successful adaptations during the time of the dinosaurs. The American
Alligator is a member of the Crocodylidae family that also contains modern day crocodiles. This
particular family has largely remained unchanged since its development over eighty-five million
years ago (University of Florida). In fact, the exact species of alligator that lives in American
rivers today evolved eight million years ago with change between then and now (University of
Florida). With the creature so well suited for its environment, things such as appearance and
build have not been forced to change, leaving behind a relic of another age. The functionality of
the alligator in our current era is clearly unquestionable due to its successful spread across
Southeast America, but its resulting primordial appearance only serves to further petrify those
who witness it. The lack of evolutionary change to the alligator is largely fueled by the animal’s
ability to adapt to its environment. As their traditional zone has been encroached on by another
apex predator, humans, the alligator has been particularly successful at assimilating to the human
lifestyle (University of Florida). Robbed of their typical rivers and ponds, these creatures are
more and more likely to be found in backyard pools and neighborhood canals as they seek out
other places to occupy. This type of adaptive behavior is not something humans are used to
seeing from animals, as the sight of most other wild animals in public places is noteworthy
despite mankind’s close proximity to their environment. The alligator’s evolutionary success and
adaptability have combined to make it an apex predator for the past few millennia, and this,
combined with its ancient construction, have made the alligator’s aura that of unparalleled
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success. When humans think about the alligator, their subconscious knows that this thing that has
survived mass extinctions and major climate changes is one of the few things similar to them in
regards to its place on the food chain.
The fact that the Alligator, an apex predator, lives in such close proximity to people is a
strong reason for their exaggerated stories and intense fears. After all, humans are apex predators
of the highest level, and it is rare for them to be around an animal of comparable killing prowess.
They see alligators as “a fellow apex predator and a rival” in a very similar way to how they
view wolves and sharks (Clemens). Sharks are a more apt comparison, as both are the top
predators of their particular environment, which is not where humans typically stay. The swamps
and oceans are to those creatures as the land is to us, so the threat they pose to us is of a much
greater degree than that presented by other creatures. To compare, when faced with the thought
of confronting a similarly skilled land hunter such as a lion or wolf, the reaction is typically that
of greater confidence that they will survive the encounter. In order for a land animal to obtain a
similar level of concern, it has to have some other factor going for it. For example, many people
in the Northwest fear pumas because of their perceived high intelligence. Another component of
human psychology contributes to this higher level of fear as well. The “availability heuristic” is
the process by which the brain tends to grab ahold of the most readily information when thinking
and making decisions without properly analyzing and thinking about its reality (Palermo). When
presented with a situation where an alligator might be present or where some other quick mental
response to one is necessary, the brain jumps to the easiest information it can find, and that
usually comes in the form of recent news headlines. Due to the alligator’s stable population, it is
an animal that often only comes up in the news after an attack or a death. With this being the
only information that is readily available, the brain quickly jumps to the conclusion that
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alligators are terrifying, aggressive creatures that kill everything in sight and have a taste for
humans. This phenomenon is likely only going to get worse, as the spread of humanity into
alligator habitats increases the possibility of some form of altercation, particularly when one
considers that these conflicts are often caused by some form of human interference with the
creatures (Ramadan). While human growth has pushed them ever closer to the swamps and river
the alligator calls home, the lack of frequency of attacks doesn’t always provoke the local people
to adjust their lifestyles accordingly. To them, these attacks seem to come out of nowhere, where
the reality is that it is near inevitable for events such as these to occur. Considering how
intimidating the alligator already is, these aspects of human psychology only serve to further the
reptile’s hold over our minds.
The varying psychological effects alligators have on people can be tracked through
analysis of their presence in different stages of American history, and through this analysis can
the development of our fear be better understood. The earliest records we have of such
interactions are with the Native American tribal people of the region. Members of the Choctaw
and Creek tribes included occasional references to the alligator, or “big lizard”, as a very
dangerous, but rather stupid, animal who is often at the butt end of a trick from more intelligent
animal and who shouldn’t be incredibly feared (Bruchac 27-28). This perception of the animal
seems peculiar based off of the evidence previously noted, as the biology of Native Americans
was very similar to that of the present day human, sharing the same disadvantages and
psychological processes. In fact, this cultural perception of the animal is based off another
mental pattern that human beings tend to fall into. According to research at Chapman University,
the more familiar a person is with the risk of becoming a victim to some kind of negative event,
the less likely they are to fear it (Palermo). In respect to Native American tribes, their lifestyle so
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often exists in the same space as the alligator’s habitat, so their familiarity with the creature’s
threat is well developed. This seems to act somewhat as an extension of the availability heuristic,
but in this case, the native people’s more intensive knowledgeable and deeper understanding of
the alligator gives them more sound information to pull from when presented with the idea of the
animal. In contrast, one can imagine the early colonist’s terror when their newfound has what
appears to be dragons swimming among the river waters. Indeed, there is evidence that suggests
that early colonists in Louisiana were initially both fearful and fascinated by these large
creatures. In the early 1800’s, however, their fear dwindled as they became more familiar with
their habits (Jones). In fact, alligators were considered even docile creatures by early settlers of
the region, and the discovery that they tasted good started mass killings of the creatures for food.
This situation highlights the above noted psychological process quite nicely, as the colonists’
fear of the alligator was greatly diminished as they got more accustomed to close proximity with
the creatures during the growth of their settlements. This mindset was largely maintained up until
the animals were nearly hunted to extinction in the mid 1900’s, and their subsequent recovery
brought back the fear in a very significant way. In the earlier examples, humans had always
intruded into the alligator’s habitat and environment, and with that reality came the responsibility
to adapt to its presence. Now, as the alligator’s population has started to rise, they have flipped
the script by starting to intrude into our habitat and environment. With their already noted
incredible adaptability, they have had little trouble moving into this human-created urban
environment, as the number of incidents and encounters have gone up in the past few decades
while their population has skyrocketed (Navarro). This intrusion of these animals into our daily
lives has caused us to fear them far more now than in other times throughout our history, and this
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causes our minds to fill in gaps in our knowledge with hyperbolic details. Mankind’s relationship
with these creatures is ever-changing, and its current state is one of intense fear and dislike.
Finally, further magnifying this fearful relationship, the alligator has been thoroughly
imbedded in our culture as a dangerous, cold-blooded killer. Thanks to its prehistoric appearance
and the preexisting potential for fear it has, the animal is a ready-made villain for movie writers
who want an obviously bad character or diabolical tool. In many Disney movies, they act as
anthropomorphic hurdles for the protagonist to outwit and avoid, and their scoundrelism imposes
the idea of evil alligators quickly into the minds of the children who watch them (Fantasia). This
phenomenon even exists in movies meant for more mature audiences, as the James Bond and
Austin Powers movies are filled with evil villains who want nothing more than to drop the heroes
or their significant others into an alligator infested tank. Even Sterling Archer, famous TV tough
guy, claims to be afraid of “any apex predator that lived through the K-T extinction […] because
it’s a perfect killing machine”, even going so far as to liken it to a brain aneurysm, a far more
likely cause of death (The Rules of Extraction). Even beyond their explicit appearances,
alligators have other effects on fictional characters across all mediums. ‘Gator’ attacks are an
easy way to explain away a missing hand or foot of some hardened general, and all grizzled
survivalist characters in animated or reality TV shows seemingly have to have some story of a
close encounter. This reinforcement of the negative perception of these creatures surrounding us
in media can spread its affect to other areas of our lives. One of the most interesting of these
applications is in the trade of alligator leather. It is used to make clothing and handbags and is
very similar to fur in the way it is taken from the animal. The curious aspect of this trade is the
lack to outcry about the farming of alligators for this trade. While those who wear fur are the
subject of public ridicule and even hatred for the perceived cruelty of their clothing options, the
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alligator leather industry has actually grown in recent years (Siegel). Animal rights groups like
PETA are trying to get the business shut down; people just don’t have as strong a reaction to this
practice as they do with the fur industry. It is reasonable to suggest that the reasoning behind this
different reaction lies in the American people’s fear of the animals. It might be that they see the
deaths as justified, as an alligator is far more of a threat than, say, a minx or a fox. This is just
another situation where people blow up their perception of things that they believe pose a danger
to them. It is evidence that the idea of the alligator has become pervasive in American culture
and lies at the forefront of our minds when we think about this animal.
An incredibly large confluence of factors has gone towards the modern day
understanding of the alligator and the idea of it that is held in our minds. Our history and culture
push us to blow up the physical features of the creature to build a terrifying monstrosity in our
heads. This is a great example of how our brains sometimes manipulate our understanding of the
reality in which we reside in order to protect us from perceived dangers. This leads us all back to
the specimen residing in the school’s museum. Seeing it for the first time would certainly come
with a bit of confusion, possibly even a bit of disappointment. Even some of the adjacent
mammals seem more intimidating. However, the more you look at it, the more the image crawls
its way back into focus, albeit with a bit of mental doctoring. The log shaped body and brownish
coloring blending into the murky swamp waters in the Okefenokee Swamp. Its powerful, flat tail
pushes it silently through the water, but even this movement is only indicated by the dinosaur
like scales barely pushing their way above the surface of the water. The light glinting off of its
ancient reptilian eyes as it approaches ever faster; its toothy grin now stands ajar as it lunges
forward. However, this is not the Alligator mississippiensis, or American Alligator. That story is
that of the modern dinosaur, the apex predator, the television icon, the eventual handbag, and,
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most importantly, the alligator that lives in our heads. When you look at the alligator, what you
really see is the repudiation of your imagination.
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Works Cited
"American Alligator." The Animal Spot. The Animal Spot, 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
"American Alligators." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. 29 Nov.
2016.
"American Alligator." National Zoo. Smithonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology
Institute, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
Bruchac, James and Joseph. The Girl Who Helped Thunder and Other American Folktales.
Sterling Publishing Company, 2008.
Clemens, Danny. "The Myth of the Predator: When Fear Becomes Reality." Discovery.
Discovery, 22 Oct. 2015. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Fantasia. Directed by Samuel Armstrong et al. Walt Disney Productions. 1940.
Navarro, Mireya. "After a Killing, a Surge in Fear of Florida Alligators." The New York Times.
The New York Times, 18 Apr. 1997. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
Palermo, Elizabeth. "Why Are People So Afraid of Sharks?" Life Science. Purch, 16 July 2015.
Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Ramadan, Lulu. "Should You Fear Alligator Bite? Not If You're Smart, Expert Says." Palm
Beach Post. Cox Media Group, 31 May 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
“The Rules of Extraction.” Archer, Written by Adam Reed, directed by Adam Reed, FX
Productions, 17 March 2014.
Siegel, Nathan. "For U.S. Queen Of Alligator-Skin Goods, Business Is Booming." NPR. NPR,
23 Oct. 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.
University of Florida. "Reptilian anachronism: American alligator older than we thought."
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 September 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.