The American Alligator Lurks in My Collage for LMAC #160

Every week when @shaka offers the Hive community a photo to interpret for the LMAC collage contest, he is presenting a sort of Rorschach test. This week's photo is a perfect example. In looking at the different collages that were evoked by the image, we are given a glimpse of the artists' minds. Or at least moods at the moment they created the collages.

Some collagists went dark. Some went magical. When I saw the picture, I thought of profoundly moving experiences in my own life and I also thought about recent events. Here's @shaka's photo. Where does it take you?

The Collage is First of All, Personal
As I have written before on Hive, I spent most of my childhood in a rural environment. Often I walked with my siblings along a stream, through the forest and across swampy terrain. @shaka's picture could have been taken on any one of those expeditions.

My adventures brought great beauty, danger and sorrow. The beauty is the most compelling of my impressions, but I was also afraid many times. The sorrow I will not address here, but it was deep and remained with me through the years.

The American Alligator

_{Credit: Tim Vickers. Public domain}

My daughter recently went to Cocoa Beach, Florida and all around she saw signs warning of alligators.

Alligator and Snake Sign My Daughter Saw at Cocoa Beach

_{Credit: LMAC Image Gallery,LIL}

At least one estimate puts the number of alligators in Florida at 1.3 million. That's a lot of hungry apex predators. In Florida, alligators are hunters, on top of the food chain...except for two species: humans and pythons.

At one point in time, the American alligator's survival was threatened. However in 1967 the animal was placed on the Endangered Species List, and since then this species has rebounded to such an extent that the state has an official Nuisance Alligator Program. According to the website Wildlife Whisper, alligators that are under 4' in length are rarely considered dangerous. However, if an alligator is a menace to people, it is removed by a licensed professional and killed (I never use the word 'euthanized'. That's a euphemism. While killing may be warranted, it is still killing.)

There is an alligator hunting season in Florida, which begins on August 15 and ends on November 1. The act of hunting and killing an alligator under this program is called 'harvesting' (another euphemism for killing). There are specific regulations for how one may hunt an alligator. Apparently, sport is part of the hunt, as crossbows and harpoons are among the permitted weapons.

Gator Hunting in Louisiana

_{Credit: Mark Gstohl. Used under CC 2.0 Attribution license}

Habitat:
The American alligator, however is thriving. These animals are found only in the United States. It is in the order crocodilian, one of the two crocodilians in the U. S. The other is the American crocodile, which is quite rare in the U. S. and is listed as Threatened.

Distribution Map of American Crocodile

_{Credit: Marcos Rodríguez Bobadilla. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license}

The American alligator may reach a length of 12 feet and weigh as much as 1,000 pounds. Males are generally larger than females. The alligator may be found as far north as North Carolina and may also be found in (besides Florida) states as far west as Texas.

The alligator is a fresh water animal. If you visit Florida and go anywhere near water, watch out!!! Recent headlines reported an 85-year-old woman who was dragged underwater by an alligator (she was defending her small pooch. The pooch lived but the woman did not).

Crocodiles (and Alligators) Climb Trees!!
Here is a video that shows tree-climbing crocodiles (video by the Red Phoenix).

American alligators are not obligate carnivores. It seems they like fruit, and may play a role in seed dispersal. The alligator is a keystone species. It is an essential part of the food chain. When alligator numbers were greatly reduced years ago, fish disappeared from Florida waters. It seems the gators hunted gar, which are ravenous consumers of fish. When the gar population exploded, they ate all the fish. With the return of the gator, the gar population was reduced and the fish returned.

Gators also help the environment with their lifestyle. They are considered 'habitat enhancers'. They dig burrows in order to cool off and in order to raise their young. The burrows retain water in dry spells and allow other creatures to survive.

Alligator Nest

_{NancyHeise. Public domain}

American alligators may live up to 50 years. They lay anywhere from 35 to 90 eggs. They are protective parents. It is estimated that only 10 of the eggs will reach one year of age.

My Collage
This was so enjoyable to make. I was like a child with a crayon box and no instructions, except to have fun (Please note: I do not compete in the contest. I participate because I enjoy the activity.)

The elements (starting of course with @shaka's template):
I borrowed richly from LIL this week. There are so many wonderful, suggestive images there. Here are the LIL contributors to whom I am in debt for this collage:

@hernleon74
cascade

@anibal-aa
sky

@muelli
palm tree

@muelli
whimsical plant

@yaziris
garden flowers

@redheadpei
cat

I also borrowed from Pixabay. Thank you, to those photographers!

mylene2401
child

blickpixel
alligator

The Process:
There was really no process, no plan except I knew where I was going. I wanted a rich, wild place, full of color, beauty, innocence and menace. I'll show a few of the different steps I went through to get to my final result.

Many of the plants I created by putting two or more together. For example:

The colored tree in the background I painted in. The green trees topping the forest I added by copying from trees in the foreground. I wanted the alligator to be camouflaged, but it literally disappeared into the creek, so I added green eyes, touched up the teeth and colored in green scales. Same with the pom pom on the child's hat. It took a while to settle on the sky color, but this one suits the picture, I think.

(By the way: the alligator in my collage may be a crocodile, not an alligator. It seems a crocodile has more teeth showing than an alligator when the mouth is closed. All alligators are crocodiles but not all crocodiles are alligators.)

My final step was to go over to Lunapic and add a Cezanne filter. I thought Cezanne was appropriate to enhance my theme.
Here's a before (Cezanne filter) and after comparison

A Little Bit of Animation for Fun: No Child or Cat was Injured in the Contemplation of This Collage:)

LMAC and LIL

Making collages is fun, a creative exercise and a learning experience. This week I learned a little bit more about alligators. Every week is another adventure.

Please check out this week's winning collages at the LMAC community site. Tomorrow we begin another round (#160). Come back then, discover the new template, and try your hand at making something unique.

You can see that LIL, the LMAC Image Library, is an important part of my collage creating process. Everyone on Hive can contribute to the library and borrow from the library. Learn about the procedure here.

I wish all my readers peace and health.

Thank you for reading my blog
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