I’ll be honest – alligators are not a very big part of my life. They’re neither native nor invasive to Oregon – I don’t even think the Oregon Zoo has one (they have two African Slender-snouted Crocodiles, which true to Portland form, they’ve named Morgan and Lance, but no alligators) – so I don’t tend to encounter them while afield. I did see one once while bird watching in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and years ago in New Orleans I had a small portion of one, deep fried with a side of chips, but that’s the limit of my experience with them.