More than 240 nuisance alligators have been trapped on Walt Disney World property over the past decade, with more than 15 of them caught so far this year, according to records released Wednesday evening by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The commission released the data after a public-records request from the Orlando Sentinel.
Also Wednesday, FWC said it is “confident” it caught the alligator that killed a 2-year-old boy, Lane Graves, at Disney World’s Seven Seas Lagoon last week and that it has concluded its investigation into the attack. The Graves family was visiting from Elkhorn, Neb., when the gator snatched the boy from along the shore at Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and drowned him.
The FWC has suspended alligator-trapping activities in the area of the lagoon. Trappers removed and euthanized six alligators from the area since the attack, with the last capture taking place at about 2 a.m. June 16. A complete copy of the wildlife agency’s report was not available Wednesday.
In a statement, FWC said the immediate area where Lane was attacked is “poor alligator habitat that will not support a large population of adult alligators.”
The records released by FWC didn’t indicate where each alligator, 4 feet or larger, was caught. Disney has more than 40 square miles, including tracts of undeveloped land. The list, which ended in mid-May, did not include the six that were trapped after the alligator attacked Lane.
Last year, 16 nuisance gators were captured — the same number as the first five months of this year.
Statewide, there were 6,706 nuisance alligators harvested in 2014, the most recent year available, FWC statistics show.
Three days after Lane was attacked, Disney began putting up fencing and “danger” signs warning of alligators and snakes along its beach areas at its resorts.
Disney didn’t have a comment about the number of nuisance alligators removed.
