The Green Gator Phenomena

"Suwannee River, Florida

It’s all over the news: Alligators have been eating people in Florida again. Gators get a bad rap from bad press, making this a good moment to test your knowledge of a living dinosaur. One that has been on earth in the same form for over 200 million years.

Question: What color are alligators?

Most people seem to know they are green. Practically every stuffed alligator toy or piece of artwork, including those around the University of Florida football stadium, home of the Florida Gators, and a place of higher learning, show gators are green. Verdant, even. Many Florida license plates show green gators. Even the state government cast its vote for green. And those little gators on the golf shirts are green; industry sells the idea.

The rare person who knows that all this “green gator” art, press and business are all wrong, knows something else about gators. In real life, they are not green.

So what color are they? "
Michael Yon

This has nothing to do with the war, but it's a great story about the place I call home.