I took this picture last Monday (5/24) using my iPhone.

Since I took that without benefit of a zoom lens, you can safely assume he’s dead.
He was pretty well hidden behind some grass, so you wouldn’t have noticed him if you were walking by. He was pointed out to us by someone walking in the other direction. None of us knew he was dead at the time, so we had a nervous chuckle and went on our way.
The next morning, I knew. The dozen or so vultures camped out in the area gave it away. Fortunately, the Florida sun hadn’t started to work its magic, so there wasn’t a smell yet. Later that day, township people came to take him away.
There was speculation on the internal message boards about the cause of his demise. Was it old age? Seemed unlikely… we was only 7 feet or so. Was there some poison or pollution in the water that did him in? Also unlikely, as there wasn’t evidence of any other deaths. Run-in with another gator? This one seemed more likely; it’s mating season, and our subject was missing a sizable chunk of scales & flesh from his left side, and some on his right.
We’ll probably never know. It’s a shame, though. We always made it a point to try to spot him on our walks, and more often than not we’d see him working on his tan on the grass opposite the trail.
And if it was another gator that did him in, where’s THAT gator? Hmmm…
Update 2010-Jun-01: There’s an older article about another alligator here: Celebrationblog.com: Wildlife Part 4.