In these days of environmental awareness it seems that I haven't heard the phrase "man over nature" in a long time. But when we speak of Florida, do most of us think first of alligators, or of Disneyworld?
We set out for a seven-day holiday, one day in the air, three days at Disneyworld and three days in the car from Miami to the Everglades National Park. Every time we came upon one of those signs that reads "Caution. Alligator Crossing" I eagerly scanned the undergrowth by the road, hoping to see a scaly foreleg, and that ugly flat snout with eyes nose and ears all squashed together on top. But after seven days all I had for my hopes was a heat rash on my arms, and some bites courtesy of huge mosquitoes. Not an alligator did we see.
An unexpected pleasure though was the sight of mangrove swamps in the national park, which reminded me of those fast disappearing mangroves at Tamsui outside Taipei, only saved from total demise by environmentally alert citizens. The mangrove seedlings grow to the length of a fountain pen detaching themselves and dropping like javelins into the soft mud, where they begin to grow leaves. This unusual tree can live in sea water, and at its base is a mass of twisting roots impossible to distinguish from the main trunk, standing at the shore as if poised to run into the waves.
But how was it I first became an alligator fan? As a child I read Peter Pan. In the story there is an alligator who has swallowed an alarm clock, and when Captain Hook hears the ticking of the clock approaching under the waves he is terrified, because the same beast has already bitten off his hand and become quite fond of the taste of his flesh. More recently I used to read the story to my own daughter at bedtime, and she would point to the picture of the alligator with its giant gaping mouth, and say: "Scary, he wants to eat someone." In case it gave her nightmares, I would sooth her with: "He doesn't want to eat anyone, he's just yawning."
Can alligators yawn? I have never known, but a biologist friend did once tell me that they burp with a terrific boom. Also, I once read how they were formerly common in coastal reaches of China, but died out due to changes in environment and climate. Memory of the terrifying beast endured however, and it metamorphosed into a mythical creature, from which the dragon takes some of its characteristics.
Another feature that endeared them to me was report of how their eyes, if a light is shone on them at night, glitter like stars even at several hundred meters, or sparkle red like pairs of rubies in the forest.
Those eyes of fire, the alligator yawn, and that tendency to float half-submerged in the water like rotted wood. Why would anyone want to kill them off for their ugly skin?
When we got back home friends asked: "How was Florida then?" I replied: "So so. I didn't see a single alligator." "An alligator? What would you want to see that for?" "I want to know if alligator yawns!"
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