
 
 Disney’s new signs warn about alligators and snakes near its lagoon beaches, in a photo taken on June 18, 2016. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) 
 
 It was not unusual for the two alligators to lurk in the pond behind Fire Station 3 in Reedy Creek, Fla. Neither reptile was full-grown — one was a young juvenile and the other was about four or five feet long, whereas an adult male American alligator can stretch to about 11 feet. 
 
 Perhaps it was the gators’ smallish size. Perhaps it was ignorance about the dangers of feeding alligators. Whatever the reason, two Reedy Creek firefighters were spotted giving the predators food. 
 
 Reedy Creek is the tax district, the equivalent of a county government, for Walt Disney World Resort. Fire Station 3 sits just outside the Magic Kingdom, to the west of Splash Mountain. It is about half a mile from Seven Seas Lagoon, which curves around Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. 
 
 There, two months after the firefighters were admonished for feeding the animals, a gator — thought to be between four and seven feet long — fatally attacked a boy wading in the lagoon. 
 
 [Disney’s Magic Kingdom has made its gator and crocodile characters disappear] 
 
 Claude Rogers, a communications captain, had warned that staff needed to stop giving food to the animals, in an email obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. 
 
 “It was brought to our attention firefighters are feeding the alligators (this is illegal),” Rogers wrote on April 20. “The communicators have found [one alligator] by the station, near the dumpster, and where they park their cars. As you can imagine this is making the communicators nervous because they are fearful of walking to their car and their leg becoming dinner. We have notified Animal Control to remove the alligator. In the interim could you ask your crews to stop feeding the gator.” 
 
 Here are tips for dealing with "nuisance alligators" in this PSA from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) 
 
 This was on the heels of another email from Dan Lewis, a Fire Station 3 dispatcher, who complained that the animals were scampering into the parking lot. “WE are the ones who have to walk in that parking lot every day and in the dark,” said Lewis in an email, per the Sentinel. “They are not docile gators, they are mean and they are out looking for food because people are feeding them. It’s getting uncomfortable,” he wrote. 
 
 Two months later, for the first time in Disney World history — and a rare event in all of Florida — an alligator killed a child, a Nebraskan boy visiting with his family. 
 
 On a Tuesday night in June, an alligator ambushed a 2-year-old boy, Lane Graves, who was wading in the artificial lagoon very close to shore. Matt Graves, Lane’s father, attempted to save his son from the animal, believed to be between four and seven feet long. But it succeeded in pulling Lane into the dark water. During the attempted rescue in the lagoon, Matt was bitten by a second alligator, requiring antibiotics and stitches. 
 
 In the wake of the tragedy, Disney installed warning signs about the presence of alligators and snakes, and removed crocodilian characters. Lane’s parents sought privacy. 
 
 [‘We are devastated,’ family says of toddler killed in alligator attack at Disney resort] 
 
 It is not apparent if the firefighter feedings in the station pond, which is an isolated body of water, are connected to the June attack. But avoiding attacks like this are one reason it is illegal to feed alligators in Florida. “No person shall intentionally feed, or entice with feed, any crocodilian unless held in captivity under a permit issued by the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission …,” according to a Florida rule. 
 
 Crocodilians, which include alligators, are instinctively wary of people. When people feed gators, however, the animals may lose their fear of humans. So-called nuisance gators can in turn become aggressive, including biting off the hand that feeds them. Throughout Florida, environmental activists warn that feeding wild gators, particularly as a tourist attraction, has become too common. 
 
 Should an alligator be spotted on park premises, Disney World told the AP in June its policy was to relocate small gators and call in a licensed trapper for larger animals. 
 
 In an interview with the Sentinel, John Classe, the district administrator for Reedy Creek, said that he did not know if the larger gator behind the fire station had been removed. But he was skeptical the fire station animal was the killer. 
 
 “The gator would have to travel across a couple roadways … to get over to the Seven Seas water body system, so it’s not likely,” he said. 
 
 A half-mile is a feasible travel distance for an alligator, though the creatures spend the vast majority of time in water. And the wanderlust of any given gator can vary. A 2013 study tracking alligators as they moved through western Florida Everglades found quite a bit of diversity in river ranges. Many alligators were unable to be tracked either because they did not move far enough or their acoustic tags broke. 
 
 [Alligators found eating human remains in Florida Everglades, police say] 
 
 Of those that were tracked, some barely shifted in location, staying within a third of a mile. Others were roamers, using 40 miles as a home range over the course of the study. The average gator stuck to about a 10-mile stretch of river. 
 
 A Disney representative said Wednesday she did not know if the larger alligator had been relocated, according to the Associated Press. Disney World’s security team, when contacted late Wednesday night by The Washington Post, declined to comment as the public relations department had gone home for the day. ||||| Two months before an alligator killed a toddler at Walt Disney World, firefighters were warned to stop feeding the reptiles at one of the resort's fire stations. 
 
 The admonitions were in emails from employees at Reedy Creek Emergency Services. Reedy Creek is the Disney-controlled taxing district that provides government services to the theme parks and surrounding areas. 
 
 The emails were obtained through a public-records request made after an alligator snatched 2-year-old Lane Graves from the shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon on June 14 and drowned him while he was on vacation with family from Nebraska. The attack took place at Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. 
 
 After that, many tourists came forward with their own stories of alligator sightings at Disney. One employee at the resort said at the time there was a problem with guests feeding the animals. 
 
 According to the emails, firefighters were feeding at least one of two alligators hanging around Fire Station 3, located off Floridian Way on Maple Road less than a half mile from Seven Seas Lagoon and less than a mile from Grand Floridian. One gator was a baby. The second was estimated to be between 4 and 5 feet long. 
 
 Reedy Creek District Administrator John Classe said he believes the feedings were not widespread throughout the resort. 
 
 Feeding alligators is illegal because it causes the animals to lose their natural fear of humans. 
 
 "You would think that the firefighters would be a little bit more in tune with the trouble that could cause and not do it," said David Hitzig, executive director of the Busch Wildlife Center, a refuge and nature center in Jupiter. "You would figure they would have more common sense than that. … When you feed an alligator, you're attracting it to people." 
 
 On April 20, communications captain Claude Rogers sent an email to Reedy Creek's fire command staff. 
 
 "It was brought to our attention firefighters are feeding the alligators (this is illegal)," Rogers' email said. "The communicators have found [one alligator] by the station, near the dumpster, and where they park their cars. As you can imagine this is making the communicators nervous because they are fearful of walking to their car and their leg becoming dinner. We have notified Animal Control to remove the alligator. In the interim could you ask your crews to stop feeding the gator." 
 
 Classe said Disney's animal-control department was contacted but he did not know whether either alligator was ever removed. Classe said the firefighters received "just a talking to and reminding — `Guys and gals, we know this isn't right, so just don't.'" 
 
 A Disney spokeswoman did not know Wednesday afternoon whether the gator had been removed. 
 
 Typically nuisance gators under 4 feet are relocated. Larger ones are trapped and killed by the state. The alligator that attacked Lane was estimated to be between 4 and 7 feet. 
 
 After Rogers' initial email, he sent another one to Reedy Creek communications employees. "Several people have expressed concern of becoming alligator food because the alligator is seen out of the pond near the building, by the dumpster, and near the cars," he wrote. "The firefighters feeding the alligator only aggravates the situation..... Animal Control has been notified and I have spoken to B/C Brown requesting they tell the firefighters to stop feeding the alligator. He has already spoken to members of his crew and has passed this on to the other shifts." 
 
 Reached by phone Wednesday, Rogers told the Orlando Sentinel he could not remember who pointed out that firefighters were feeding alligators. "Someone told me, I think," he said. "I don't remember specifics as to who or what. Obviously it was by word of mouth." 
 
 A few days before Rogers' emails, Reedy Creek dispatcher Dan Lewis alerted Rogers and another official about a problem with the gators. 
 
 "Could yall tell the ops side to stop feeding these alligators, we think we have 2," Lewis wrote in an email. "They are coming out in the parking lot much more than others in the past and WE are the ones who have to walk in that parking lot every day and in the dark. They are not docile gators, they are mean and they are out looking for food because people are feeding them. It's getting uncomfortable" 
 
 Classe said he doubts the larger gator would have been involved in the attack on Lane Graves. "The gator would have to travel across a couple roadways … to get over to the Seven Seas water body system, so it's not likely" it got over there, Classe said. 
 
 There is a pond behind the fire station that does not appear connected to other waterways. 
 
 Tim Stromsnes, president of the Reedy Creek firefighters' union, said he had heard in the past about a small alligator — about 4 feet — in that pond. 
 
 "I've never seen anybody or heard of anybody feeding it," he said. "I think he's been in there forever in that little retention pond there." 
 
 spedicini@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5240
– Firefighters at Disney World were warned to stop feeding alligators two months before a gator killed 2-year-old Lane Graves, according to employee emails. Emails from employees of Reedy Creek Emergency Services—which operates inside the park—show firefighters had been feeding at least one of two gators apparently living in a pond near their fire station, less than a mile from where Lane was killed, reports the Orlando Sentinel. One alligator was believed to be four or five feet long, and the other was a juvenile. In one email to the fire station's commanders, a communications rep said an alligator had been spotted near the station where communications staff parked their cars, and some "expressed concern of becoming alligator food. ... (C)ould you ask your crews to stop feeding the gator." A Reedy Creek dispatcher later complained about two gators in the parking lot. "They are not docile gators, they are mean and they are out looking for food because people are feeding them," he wrote. "It's getting uncomfortable." A Reedy Creek district administrator says firefighters received "just a talking to"—though feeding gators is illegal in Florida. It's not clear whether these gators have any connection to Lane's death. The administrator is skeptical because they would have had "to travel across a couple roadways" to get to the Seven Seas Lagoon near the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, where the June 14 incident took place. Still, notes the Washington Post, trying to avoid such attacks is "one reason it is illegal to feed alligators in Florida." The resort area has since added signs warning people about feeding them, reports People. (The June attack was the result of a "perfect storm" of circumstances.)