One of the more plentiful residents of KSC is the alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). KSC shares its location with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 140,000 acre parcel of Florida land and water. Areas not dedicated to launch and landing structures, engineering support facilities, and administrative and logistic operations are native Florida coastal environment: pine tree stands, oak hammocks, marsh, and the Indian River Lagoon littoral zone. It is an ideal habitat for gators. And we grow them big! From hatchlings under a foot long to the legendary "Elvis", who is reported to be over 12 feet from the tip of his snout to the tip of his tail, gators are a fact of KSC life!

Unfortunately, gators and people don´t get along too well. Gators are predatory reptiles, and are known to attack, kill and eat birds, turtles, and other small animals. Although it has rarely happened, there have been cases of alligator attacks on domestic pets and even humans. When such unfortunate events occur, the result can be fatal for both the human and the gator. On occasions when a large gator takes up residence in an area a little too close to people for comfort, the gator often loses out, as the picture on the right shows. This nine footer was trapped and killed in a drainage ditch between the KSC Headquarters building and its parking lot!

This story of a close encounter of the reptilian kind is recounted by Cryogenics engineer Martin Hayes:

"I remember one day I was leaving work a little later than usual. Since I work at the launch Pad (LC -39B) I have to go through the badge gate before I leave. Well, when I drove up to the badge gate I was quite surprised. I got the opportunity to see a live alligator wrestling match. Apparently some of the local wildlife had wandered up to the badge board. Someone, of course, called the Fish and Wildlife guys. So there´s this big strong Wildlife guy (who I would never arm wrestle), and an alligator about as long as his leg. The Wildlife guy stands in front of the alligator, whose mouth is open and he´s hissing, and dangles a rope with a noose at the end in front of him. He then tightens the noose around the gator´s snout and pulls the alligator forward. The alligator did not go quietly. The man and the gator played tug-of-war for quite some time. Finally the guy was able to get behind the gator, close his mouth, and wrap the rope around it. I finally went home, but that was some show."