Not what you want to see in your headlights late at night.
A Texas man was recently driving home through his Missouri City neighborhood when he came upon a massive 11-foot alligator near his home.
According to Cornealous Greigg Jr., all he saw in his headlights at first was a glowing set of eyes – so he did a quick U-turn to check it out for himself:
“I saw his eyes. I didn’t see him, I saw his eyes. So, it made me do a U-turn, and then when I did the U-turn, I drove slow, and then I saw him. He was ginormous. He was huge. I’ve never seen one that big up close.”
Greigg (smartly) stayed in his car and called police, who arrived on the scene to keep an eye on the gator while they waited for a trapper to arrive.
After Timothy DeRamus, known as Houston’s “gator wrangler” arrived on the scene about an hour later, it took him nearly three hours to capture the massive beast, who apparently didn’t want to go quietly and put up quite the fight:
“I had to get his mouth secure and taped up. He kept throwing the rope and towel off, snapping his jaws, and swinging his tail at me.
He kept flopping around at different angles where we couldn’t get him high enough to get him in the bed of the truck. An alligator like this could knock my leg off real easy. He’s just a massive beast.”
The 11-foot gator weighed an incredible 1,200 lbs, and was missing his right front leg. Officials estimated that the gator is approximately 85 years old.
Head on a swivel out there. You never know what’s roaming your neighborhoods at night.
Bobcat Spotted Sizing Up An Alligator Along Florida Road
That’s a lot of fight for one meal…
Bobcats and alligators just best stay away from one and other, nothing good will come from two killers engaging in a fight.
Bobcats are cats that inhabit various regions of Florida. They are medium-sized carnivores, with males weighing between 20 and 30 pounds and females slightly smaller. They have a compact and muscular build, with a distinctive short tail and tufted ears.
Bobcats are opportunistic predators, adapting their diet to the available food sources. They primarily hunt small to medium-sized mammals, such as rabbits, squirrels, rats, and mice. Additionally, they may prey upon birds, reptiles, and occasionally even larger animals like deer.
Bobcats are excellent hunters, using their speed, stealth and sharp claws to take down anything they plan on. They rely on the element of surprise to aid their hunts.
Florida is home to a huge alligator population, where they can grow up to 15 feet long. Alligators are apex predators with a huge appetite. Their diet consists primarily of fish, turtles, birds, and small mammals that venture near the water’s edge. However, larger alligators have been known to capture and devour prey as substantial as deer or livestock.
Bobcats and gators don’t typically even come across each other. Bobcats, like many cats aren’t fond of water and alligators almost exclusively live there. But, from time to time they do have encounters, making them all the more cool since they are infrequent.
This bobcat is seen on a Florida road, sizing up a young alligator. As the gator tries to make its way out of thee, the bobcat slowly moves towards it as if it is hunting. It gets a read but ultimately decides not to attack.
Florida is a wild place where you never know what you might see.
Alligator Spotted Riding Waves At The Beach
Well that’s not supposed to be there…
Tourists and beachgoers got quite the scare when they spotted a large alligator riding the ocean waves off the coast of Alabama this past weekend. Facebook user Matt Harvill took photos and videos of the strange alligator encounter and the his post has now gone viral.
Alligators are the United States’ largest reptiles and are known to grow to be over 1,000 pounds and reach lengths as long as 15 feet. They are also not usually found in saltwater, which is why this video is all the more shocking.
Harvill can be heard in one of the videos describing the experience in a rather unique way:
“Tell me whenever you can go to the beach and the f***ing zoo at the same time. I’d be impressed.”
I guess I can’t argue with you there Matt. As much as I do love both beaches and zoos, I do tend to like them as separate experiences, so I understand where Harvill is coming from there.
In this video below, the alligator can be seen floating in the shallow water of the waves crashing up against the shore. I really hope that it had just previously body-surfed its way to this position, but I cannot confirm that took place (though I can’t deny it either).
As Harvill walks towards the alligator floating in the push and pull of the tide, one beachgoer can be heard telling Matt to be careful and questioning how fast the alligator could be.
Harvill gives off big “first person to die in a horror movie” vibes when he laughs and shouts back:
“Not faster than me.”
Luckily those aren’t Matt’s famous last words as he continues to approach the alligator as waves crash across its reptilian head.
I know it might seem like it is a mistake that this gator got to the beach, but this video above makes it look like the alligator knows exactly what its doing. Give that thing a beer and a sunhat and it would be living that salt life, you know what I’m saying?
Harvill told WBRC that the alligator seemed curious more than anything else, and explained how he came to snap the shocking pictures and videos of the gator’s beach day:
“It was just a very beautiful day, my girlfriend and I were just spending some time on the beach when someone mentioned it. So, we walked down to get a better look and snap some pictures.
It’s not everyday something like that happens. We see them in Dog River and the Bird sanctuary. Almost never in the Gulf like that. I knew if I didn’t get pictures no one would ever believe it.”
Harvill is right. There’s a good chance that no one would have believed him considering that gators tend to prefer freshwater ecosystems like marshes and rivers.
There’s a chance that the alligator had wandered out to the beach to in search of food since its not uncommon for the large reptiles to seek out marine wildlife to munch on. If it did end up eating before he got into the water, hopefully it followed the old unwritten rule and waited for 30 minutes so it didn’t get a stomach ache.
If this were a crocodile with its “toes in the water and ass in the sand,” that would make a lot more sense. Crocs have saltwater glands that act as salinity regulators underneath their tongues, whereas alligators do not.
Crocodiles have the option of living in saltwater or freshwater, whereas their alligator counterparts live in fresh water and can stand saltwater for shorter periods of time.
Regardless of whether or not the alligator was supposed to be there, Matt Harvill’s pictures and videos proved that the encounter occurred. His post on Sunday elaborated on just how crazy the sighting was:
“The things you never think you’ll see. First time seeing a gator on Dauphin Island.
Heading towards the west end be careful y’all.”
I love the beach, but I would be saying “see ya later, alligator” to this one in particular.
I’ve already got enough to worry about with sharks, stingrays, and jellyfish in the water, so mark Dauphin Island off the list of potential vacation spots…
And while we are at it, some of the comments below the post were pretty entertaining as well:
“Looks like he’s just enjoying the peaceful waves like I do when I go to the beach. I wouldn’t want to share the space with him, though.”
“He’s having a beach day.”
“Looks like he is surfing.”
“The way he enjoying the waves tho.”
