re: Am I irrationally afraid of kayaking in rivers with alligators?

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I believe cows kill the most people annually in the USA.

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Cows are 4th
Dogs are 3rd
Bees are second
Deer are first, mostly as a result of auto accidents.

I wouldn’t kayak in South Florida where crocs are present. An alligator isn’t going to bother you in a kayak unless you’re hanging sirloins off the side of it.

They’re not going to f with you.

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Hendrik "Hendri" Coetzee (c. 1975 – 7 December 2010) was a South African outdoorsman and author.[4][5] He was killed after being taken by a crocodile in December 2010.[4][6] Coetzee gained prominence in 2004 leading a Nile River source-to-sea expedition, following in the path of John Goddard's expedition.[7][8][9][10] The expedition set off from Lake Victoria in Uganda on 17 January, reaching Khartoum on 25 March[11] and the Mediterranean Sea at Rosetta on 21 May.[12] The purpose of the trip was to draw attention to the humanitarian situation in the region in partnership with CARE.[13] Following claims that the expedition had not begun from the true source of the Nile, Coetzee's party undertook a further journey from Kagera to Lake Victoria in April 2005, adding 750 km to the 6700 km they completed in 2004.[14] Coetzee was leader of an expedition going from the source of the White Nile into the Congo at the time of the attack. The trip was the first-of-its-kind kayaking expedition from the White Nile and Congo rivers into the Congo to explore the Ruzizi and Lualaba Rivers. The two other men on the trip, Americans and also experienced kayakers, were documenting unexplored whitewater and development projects in the region.[4][15] A memorial service for Coetzee was held on 28 January 2011.[1] The documentary short film Kadoma about Coetzee was released in 2011.[16] His story was also featured in 2022 as an episode on National Geographic's Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin.[17]

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Coetzee was swallowed whole by a massive crocodile. I read the article in Outside magazine years ago. His pals said he literally vanished in the blink of an eye.. scary shite but that’s how crocodiles death roll…

I used to kayak around the Tchefuncte/T-Rivers area with my daughter on the boat with me when she was a little tike.. most gators we ever counted in our presence was 12 :)

You get close to a mama with young’ns she’ll frick you up

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Coetzee was swallowed whole by a massive crocodile

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Swallowed whole probably isn't right, but a massive Nile Croc (much bigger than any American gators) straight up snatched him off the kayak and pulled him down in one motion. Hopefully for his sake he went quickly.

Yes.

You will be fine. Just don’t bring your dog.

As long as you are bigger they won't care.

Snakes are the fun ones, they think you're a log and try to get on board. Fun when it's a little black river snake, terrifying when it's a cotton mouth.

Will depend if its an area where gators are routinely around people and if anyone has been feeding them.

Took my kayak to a small lake here in arkansas for the purpose of seeing one. Saw 3. One of them followed my kayak around. Never got aggressive but never left. I left promptly. Figure it was hoping i caught a fish or something.