A massive 10+ foot Florida alligator was recently spotted in the unlikeliest of places. A passerby noticed a huge gator snout poking out of a storm drain and called for help. This all went down not too far from me here in Southwest Florida and a gator of this size stuck in this situation is truly newsworthy.
The Cape Coral Fire Department worked in tandem with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). In order to free the massive Florida alligator they had to use a truck to lift the lid off the storm drain and the FWC trapper was then able to maneuver the 10-foot, 6-inch alligator onto his truck.
Due to the massive size of this alligator, it will be relocated to be part of a breeding program. But the photos and footage from the rescue operation shared by the Cape Coral Fire Department on Facebook illustrate just how massive this gator was:
Here is another action shot of the big ol’ alligator being removed from the storm drain:
A local news crew appeared to run b-roll footage of a rescue crew along with the photos. It’s entirely unclear if the first shot in this video is related but there are additional photos here:
This 10-foot, 6-inch alligator wouldn’t necessarily qualify as a ‘nuisance alligator’ according to the Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program’s definition.
They define a nuisance alligator as “generally, an alligator may be considered a nuisance if it’s at least 4 feet in length and believed to pose a threat to people, pets or property.” The word ‘generally’ is doing a lot of work there because it opens up the term for interpretation.
All of that said, given that this alligator is well over 10-feet-long it was relocated to a breeding program due to the health of this specimen. A 10-foot alligator is estimated to be somewhere between 27 and 29 years old, on average.
For a gator to live that long in Florida is has to survive A LOT. That the exact type of specimen that an alligator breeding program is looking for in Florida, for better or worse.