Penning Photography Daily

This mama alligator had three babies with her, out sunning on a bright afternoon in the Seapines plantation section of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

The homes were just across a creek from a forest preserve in Seapines, that contains areas that are mostly un-touched from what they would have looked like hundreds of years ago. The preserve has swamps, dense forest growth with a thick canopy of trees and deep shadows, and an ancient shell ring that dates thousands of years old, among other treasures worth exploring on the trails that wind through the 600+ acres.

Fifty yards or so away from these gators, a pack of turtles were out doing the same thing. These creatures moderate their body temperature through external measures, such as sunning themselves, not by creating internal heat like we do. They are ectothermic or “cold-blooded” not endothermic, such as most mammals.

Gators are also very fast, and have great power in their tails. Not to be played with at all.

What you can’t see in this tight frame, is that this 7 or 8 foot alligator and her brood were resting less than 20 feet from the deck stair case of a modern large home.

Imagine having these creatures in your back yard, or on your deck.