Before a recent trip to Florida, I gave my kids the talk.

Stay away from the water's edge.

I'm not typically a helicopter parent, but the threat of some animals just creates a

more visceral fear than others.

Like all perceived threats in the wild, though, it helps to know the facts.

Alligators can be found as far southwest as Texas and Oklahoma and along the southern states

up into parts of North Carolina.

But for now, we're going to stick with Florida, where today's story takes place.

According to Florida Fish and Wildlife, there are about 10 unprovoked alligator attacks

on humans every year.

That puts your chances at being attacked by an alligator at 1.3.2 million.

But that number seems to be rising.

The reason for this increase can be mainly explained by explosive population growth.

In the 1980s, alligators were on the endangered species list.

But in the last decade, their population has ballooned to over a million in Florida alone,

meaning there's about one alligator to every 20 residents of the state.

It may seem that alligators are easily enough avoided, but that's not true for Jeffrey

Heim, who has built his career around another type of big-tooth predator.

He's made shark education and conservation part of his life's work.

But when your job and passion is collecting prehistoric shark teeth, encountering an alligator

is just another day at the office.

I made a decision to survive in that survival mode.

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