do alligators attack kayaks

I get this question in the parking lot before we even reach the water, usually from someone who booked the trip and then spent the night before reading horror stories. Do alligators attack kayaks? It’s a fair thing to be scared of. It’s also, mostly, the wrong thing to be scared of. So here’s the honest answer, the one I give at the put-in, minus the sugarcoating and minus the airboat-operator drama. The short answer, up front Wild alligators do not hunt kayaks. Attacks on kayaks and canoes are rare, genuinely rare, and when a bite does happen it almost always traces back to a specific human mistake, not a gator deciding a paddler looks like lunch. That’s the truth. I won’t tell you the risk is zero, because nothing outdoors is zero, but I will tell you it’s low…