This might be a new strategy to avoid shark attacks that we humans have never thought of: act like you don’t care that it’s happening, and the shark will eventually leave you alone.
A lot of people strive to have the confidence and ability to be unbothered like this alligator. This South Carolina gator is just floating on the surface of the water, enjoying itself too much to be agitated (or threatened) by a shark.
In the clip, you’ll see the smaller alligator just minding its business by some sort of dock in Hilton Head, South Carolina when the slightly larger shark appears in the murky water beneath. The shark is clearly a little bit bigger than the gator (who looks like its taking a mental health day), and the size difference doesn’t seem to make the alligator too concerned.
The only thing it is concerned about is relaxing in the water and letting the flow of the bay drift it back and forth. Even with the shark circling it, the gator looks “cool as a cucumber” about the whole thing. The only thing the gator is really missing at this point is an innertube, an umbrella hat, and an ice cold beer in a koozie.
When a creature starts to circle another creature, that’s usually not a good sign. Often times, that practice means they are honing in for an attack, and if a shark does it to prey in the water, they are usually good as dead. At one point in the footage, it looks like something might be thrown in the water near the alligator to fend off the shark, and even that doesn’t cause the gator to move a muscle.
The relaxing reptile only eventually reacts when the shark decides it has had enough of not being noticed, and takes a bite at the gator’s back left leg. Only then does the alligator react, sloshing back around in the water to position to protect itself. The quick movement that the gator pulled off appears to have gotten its leg free from the shark’s teeth, and it might have also scared away the attacking sea creature.
It at least made the shark disinterested in trying to pick a fight, because the gator goes back to floating in the water peacefully as you can still see the shark swimming around underneath it. The shark had to be asking itself:
“What the hell is happening? What am I doing wrong? Is it possible that I’ve lost my edge?”
Thinking about a shark being insecure is pretty funny, but seeing an alligator literally not care at all about being attacked by a shark is just a touch funnier. Nothing was going to ruin that alligator’s relaxing day by the dock, not even one of the fiercest predators on the planet trying to stake an attack.
And you know what? Good for that alligator. It wasn’t taking any bull sh*t that day, and it certainly wasn’t taking any shark sh*t.
Take a look:
