It’s a gator eat gator world out there…
Having lived in Florida got a few years, I can tell you with first hand experience that watching alligators is a great way to spend an afternoon.
There was one park I’d go to that had a boardwalk right at the river’s edge where you can just kick back and see literally dozens of these monsters patrolling the water. During mating season, they were especially feisty so I got to see a couple being aggressive, but I certainly never saw anything like these people did.
This video also comes out of Florida and shows what happens when a monster alligator comes across a carcass of another gator.
Spoilers, they don’t give it a proper burial.
The man and his son were on top of a bridge of some sort and the dad is trying to get his boy to look over the edge and take in the incredibly rare sight playing out in front of them, but the kid didn’t seem to keen on what was happening in front of him.
You can hear him saying in the background
“I thought you don’t like seeing dead animals”
I think we can all agree with that one kid, but man this really seems like it’d be worth you seeing. The dad tries to convince him to look by saying:
“I don’t like seeing dead animals, I just want to get a once in a lifetime opportunity here to see that.”
I can also agree with that…
The video was posted by natureismetal (shoutout to them), and they provided the following description of events to put some context around what is happening.
“Crocodilians, like many other scavengers and predators, have digestive systems that are highly acidic, allowing them to break down bacteria and parasites that would be harmful to many other animals. This makes them relatively resistant to diseases that might be associated with consuming decaying or rotting flesh.
They also possess an exceptionally robust immune system, which protects them from potential pathogens in decomposing flesh. This may seem gruesome and vile from where we are sitting, but alligators don’t eat anything because they like the taste of their food, they eat to stay alive.
Fr apex predators like alligators, eating isn’t about culinary enjoyment but about survival. Their dietary habits, from the kinds of prey they hunt to their willingness to consume carrion, are the result of millions of years of evolutionary fine-tuning.”
Man, videos like this really get me missing the Sunshine State…
