Alligators are on the move in SC. SCDNR has a new tool to keep you safe

Six people have been killed by alligators in South Carolina since 2016 — two women walking their dogs, a woman cutting hedges in her yard near a lagoon, a man and two women dragged into retention ponds.

Such deaths are rare, as are attacks by alligators overall and the Department of Natural Resources wants to keep it that way.

They have joined with 10 other states to teach people about alligators and how to minimize conflict as property along the state’s waterways becomes increasingly developed.

It’s called GatorWise and includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

“The introduction of GatorWise is important because information about how humans should behave around alligators is similar across the Southeast, but until now, each state has had to manage their own outreach sites and information.” said Morgan Hart, South Carolina DNR alligator biologist. “We hope that being able to reference a central place for information will help people and alligators coexist safely.”

The project has been in the works for several years, Hart said, and cost each state $2,000.

Eventually, it could be built out to include videos, handouts and a range of information like BearWise.com.

It’s estimated there are 100,000 alligators in South Carolina. Louisiana has the most at 2 million followed by Florida’s 1.3 million and Texas’ 400,000.

Wildlife experts there say if you’re in a lake, just assume there are alligators in there with you. Hart said alligators are in any sizable body of fresh water below the state’s Fall Line, which runs roughly parallel to U.S. Highway 1.

They’re also good at hiding — they’ll see you before you see them.

“Alligators are a robust species that can thrive in areas where development occurs, as long as the people in these areas understand how to responsibly coexist with them,” DNR said in a news release.

Alligators also attack only from the water, Hart said. So if you see a gator climbing a chain link fence, they’re only trying to get from one place to another.

Hart said the website was designed to offer easy tips to keep people and gators safe.

“They’re not monsters,” she said. “They don’t approach people.”

In fact, she said, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning twice than to be attacked by an alligator.

Alligator safety tips

• Never feed alligators. It’s irresponsible and illegal in most states.
  
  
• Do not approach them.
  
  
• Alligators do not know the difference between pets and their natural prey.
  
  
• Avoid swimming in areas with dense vegetation. Alligators hide in vegetation in and around the water.
  
  
• Only swim during daylight hours. Alligators are most active between dusk and dawn.
  
  

SC alligator deaths

The most recent death attributed to alligators in South Carolina was July 4, 2023 when 69-year-old Holly Jenkins was attacked while walking her dogs on Hilton Head Island, where she had lived for 35 years.

Nancy Becker was 88 when she was killed while trimming hedges in her backyard at Sun City in Bluffton on Aug.15, 2022. She fell into a lagoon and was immediately attacked. Her neighbors reported they saw an alligator guarding a body.

On June 24, 2022, Michael Burstein, 75, was dragged into a community pond at the Myrtle Beach Golf and Yacht Club.

Witnesses said an alligator lunged at him as he was standing at the water’s edge. The Horry County Coroner’s Office said he drowned after the gator dragged him into the pond.

On May 1, 2020 during the COVID lockdown, Cynthia Covert was giving a manicure for a woman in the woman’s Kiawah Island home when she noticed an alligator in a nearby pond.

The John’s Island resident was standing at the edge of the pond when the animal grabbed her leg and pulled her under, drawing her into the water.

A deputy sheriff shot the gator when it came out of the water still holding onto Covert’s leg.

Binghamton, New York, teacher Cassandra Cline, 45, was walking her dog on August 20, 2018 on the golf course near her future retirement home at Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head when an alligator lunged for her Sheltie named Kylie.

The gator missed the dog but got hold of the leash, and as Cline tried to get the leash back, the gator pulled her into a pond. Cline had been able to unhook the dog’s collar from the leash, and the dog survived.

On July 27, 2016, 90-year-old Bonnie Walker walked outside Brookdale Senior Living Center in Charleston around midnight. Hours later, her granddaughter found her body floating in a retention pond after being killed in an alligator attack.

This story was originally published May 22, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Alligators are on the move in SC. SCDNR has a new tool to keep you safe."