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Every so often some jaw-dropping footage of a dinosaur-sized alligator comes along that shocks the world. Sometimes it’s a stunning photograph of a gator devouring a fish but more often than not it’s video footage of a massive alligator doing wild gator things.
They never taught us this in Biology class, but cannibalism is a natural part of the alligator food chain. It is estimated that 7% of juvenile alligators are eaten by larger gators. So while it’s not incredibly common it’s also common enough that it gets caught on camera every so often.
This footage from October 2021 at Florida’s Circle B Bar Preserve would be a perfect example of alligator cannabalism that shocked the world. And now we have this stunning video below filmed at Silver Springs State Park in Florida, just outside of Ocala.
Enormous 11-Foot Alligator in Silver Springs, Florida devours a smaller gator with ease while paddleboarder watches on in shock.
I haven’t been to Silver Springs State Park in decades, not since I was in the Boy Scouts. And I honestly don’t remember there being many alligators there compared to other camping sites we’d visit in the Scouts but now I’m curious what it’s like there and want to go back soon. Anyway, here’s this gnarly footage of an 11-foot alligator, a truly massive specimen, eating a smaller gator like a roller dog from Circle K.
To quote my son’s favorite cartoon character Pinky Dinky Doo, ‘now that’s not something you see every day. And now I’ll send a shoutout to the 1 reader out of the tens of millions of BroBible readers who understood that reference.
How common is cannabalism amongst gators?
I mentioned above that it’s estimated 7% of juvenile alligators are eaten by larger gators. It’s unclear where the numbers go from there. Is it 1% of gators eating 7%? Do the rich get richer? Do these reptiles even discern one meal from another? And do they develop a taste for smaller gators or is it out of convenience and necessity?
I honestly have no idea and I’m sure field biologists could spend their entire careers studying this phenomenon and not be able to definitely answer one way or the other. But we do have plenty of documented instances of massive alligators eating smaller ones. Case in point, here’s a gator nicknamed ‘Grandpappy’ eating his rival on a golf course near Lakeland, Florida.
Then there was this very famous example from a prominent wildlife photographer. He called it the ‘biggest alligator ever seen‘ and it was chewing on a smaller gator like a snack.
What it looks like to be eaten by an alligator…
If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to be eaten by an alligator, wonder no longer. This video below surfaced a little while back. It shows an alligator swallowing a GoPro so we get a look at what it’s like inside the mouth of a gator.
Here’s to hoping that none of us ever end up in a headline with the words ‘Florida Man’ and ‘Alligator’…
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This alligator is an absolute unit https://t.co/tUCGkOllWc
— BroBible (@BroBible) February 2, 2022