Gator, if I were you, I'd have to kill the gator. With little kids trying to enjoy the pond (I believe you've got some youngsters?), there is just too much to risk.
I believe that you can teach kids about the dangers present when out in the wild such as snakes, etc., but the gator just seems too much, and unpredictable at that. I don't even know what would be a safe range for observation.
A few years back, my wife and I and one friend were flats fishing with a guide off Islamorada FLA KEYS, so there were four of us on a small skiff. Tarpon was not really in season, so we decided to fish for sharks. We pulled up and anchored (by sticking in the push-pole and tying off to it) by a mangrove, and started chumming. We were also catching mangrove snappers, cutting them in half, and using them as bait.
At one point, two of us had sharks on the line. The sharks were maybe 250-350lbs., so there was basic mayhem on the skiff. At the same time, a gator emerged from the mangrove and started slowly coming straight at the boat. I saw him and asked the guide what we were going to do; I also asking him if the gator could get onto our boat. The guide told me the gator could easily get on the boat. Sad thing was that we didn't even have access to the push-pole as it was twenty feet away, stuck in the ocean bottom as our anchor. We basically cut the lines for the sharks, started the motor, and got back up to our anchor, and left the area. In hindsite, I've never feld comfortable with that whole situation, not because of the gator, but because we were catching big sharks on this little boat. If anyone had fallen off the boat, they would have been in about 6-10 feet of water with at least 30-40 sharks of various types. As the tide was going out, it was like being in a river. It would have been at least 2-3 minutes before we could get the engine started and get back to the man overboard.
All ethics, habitat, and conservation stuff aside, if something happened to my kid(s) or dog even, that I could have prevented, I'd be affected for life.
