HILTON HEAD, SC  – A giant alligator brought traffic to a standstill on Highway 278 in front of Fresh Market in Hilton Head Monday afternoon, a week after a gator made headlines for climbing a flight of stairs to get to a Charleston couple’s porch–experts say spotting alligators in these unusual places means courting season is starting early.

“Alligators know where they are and they know where they want to go to and if there’s anything in the way, they just go straight to it,” said Tom Murphy, a research biologist with the Spring Island Trust.

“We’ve got a male out here, he’s visited five females in the last two weeks and so that’s why we’re seeing so many big animals, showing up in odd places, because they’re doing this courtship thing,” he said, “Most of their habitat has emerged in plants, so they can’t see each other so they communicate by bellowing and a female will bellow, the males know that it’s a female and they will go to her to breed.”

While they may just be looking for love, that doesn’t make them any less dangerous. There are a few things one should keep in mind

“Admire them from a distance; take all the photos you want just don’t try to interact with them,” said Vince Maffo with Critter Management, Inc. in Hilton Head.

“Don’t feed it. The last thing you wanna do is feed an alligator,” he said, “The next person that comes by and doesn’t feed them, they look for them as a food source.”

Even when you can’t see them, Murphy says the little bumps on the lower jaw of a gator are pressure sensors, “So alligators can be under water and when you splash the water, they know exactly where you are.”

And unless you’re professionally trained, don’t try to keep them as a pet…

“There is no teaching a gator, their brains are very, very small, there’s no training… you can’t train them like a dog or cat,” said Maffo.

It’s also important to keep in mind the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources requirements for animal control businesses like Critter Management.

“A lot of people come and check into condos on Hilton Head, and call us and say, ‘Well we have an alligator in the back yard, come get it.’ It doesn’t work like that,” Maffo said.

He says you should only call if it poses a threat.

“If it’s a nuisance gator, if it’s aggressive in any way whatsoever, we’re required by the state to put it down.”