Video: Best Round One Action At Kiawah, Aligator V. Snake

Spotted on Scott Murray's Guardian As It Happened blog which, like other Guardian live blogs, is a good page to keep open if you are following the PGA.

From round one, which I must have missed during one of my naps or while watching the Olympics. Nice to see the gators serve a purpose!

Comments

[Press Agent]

Can someone help me out with understanding of the water around there?
My impression was they used Paspalum so the golf course could be irrigated with Brackish (salt) water, so I assumed the water around the area in the little ponds and swamps etc is salt water. However, I thought alligators don't like and can't survive in salt water, the way salties (salt water crocodiles) do, so the alligators will flee an area with salt water. Is this not the case? or how does this work?

Thks, PA

[KLG]

@PA: Gators prefer freshwater, but I have seen them in saltwater creeks and brackish ponds all over the southeast coast. I was once at the beach and found myself in the ocean with a 6-foot gator, but I think that is very unusual. He certainly didn't seem happy about getting knocked about by the waves. And yes, nmonroe might have a hard time believing it, but I got out of the water. If Kiawah is like other barrier islands, it is basically a pool of freshwater-saturated sand sitting on the edge of the ocean, as I understand the geology. Generally speaking, the ponds not connected to the ocean or estuary will be predominately freshwater. To the extent (probably low) that groundwater is used for irrigation, it may be brackish due to deep saltwater intrusion into the aquifer. The latter is potentially a very large problem in an area where drinking water comes from deep underground. Artesian relief wells that relieve salt water pressure have been common in places along the coast for more than 40 years.

[grr]

bloodbath on scoreboard too? no one under par so far?

[Tadpole]

@PA

The ponds are fresh water but have a high salt content from both ocean spray and from water coming up from the ground. The water table is about 6" is some spots. So, all of the water at our area golf course have high salt water content. It becomes a real problem when we are in drought conditions as there is not fresh water to dilute the salt. We have started using paspalum at my home course in certain areas for this very reason.

Most of the Ocean Course water drains to a pond behind and to the left of the first tee and is then pumped back out to water the course. I have been told this one pond has some sort of liner in it to help with the salt coming from the ground.

The gators don't really like salt water but learn to adapt for hunting. The video above is in a regular pond that is more fresh than salt water.

[No Longer Used to be Former Stack & Tilt Convert]

Tadpole and KLG are on the money, I don't think snakes like saltwater either.

[Press Agent]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the explanations.

[TXQ]

Gators prefer a little salt with their snakes.

[digsouth]

We have muy alligators in my county, as the rivers (San Antonio, Guadalupe, and Garcitas Creek, the site of Fort La Salle) wind thru swamps and marshes--the water is brackish, and the Gators just adapt, as the muskrats and all also adapt. However yep, real freshwater is preferred.

The liner in the pond makes sense. Liners are used at great expense to retain water here in Texas, and they work.

Scary video. Hurray for the Gator.